19/08/2010

For Katja von Garnier, film can be a gateway to hope and the human spirit, to the magic of existence and the mysteries of the unknown. “Films are so powerful. I think they can have a lot of impact, a positive impact, and I’d like to be part of the positive impact,” says the director.

Von Garnier, who has lived in Los Angeles for much of the past decade, is back in Berlin getting ready to shoot Hector’s Journey this fall for Egoli Tossell Film. Based on the bestselling novel by François Lelord about a young psychiatrist who wants to find out why so many of his patients are unhappy and thus embarks on a globetrotting search for the secret to happiness, it was a story that grabbed von Garnier’s attention from the start.

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”I was really intrigued by the subject matter and I just love it because it’s very timely. Hector is an awakening-of-conscious story. It doesn’t want to be a recipe for happiness but I think I can inspire people to think about what makes them happy and maybe offer the possibility that in life, complex as it is, it’s possible to get to know ourselves better, and that’s a beginning.”

The power of the human spirit is something that always fascinated von Garnier, especially in female characters. In her 1993 debut hit Making Up! she offered a portrait of single women overcoming obstacles to their own happiness, while in 1997’s Bandits, she followed four women inmates who form a rock band in prison and then escape to freedom.

Likewise, her US film debut, Iron Jawed Angels, examined the life of American feminist Alice Paul, who led the campaign for women’s suffrage in the early part of the 20th century. “I’ve always been interested in carving out a path when it comes to looking at female characters, exploring certain kinds of characters that work against a stereotype and with a point of view from my own observation of a feminine spirit. I find myself drawn to it; its what I respond to,” she says.

Even in the 2007’s Blood & Chocolate, a young female protagonist, driven by forbidden love, struggles against the strict confines of a close-knit community of werewolves. The mystical love story kicked off the modern supernatural romance craze that followed a year later with the start of the hugely successful Twilight franchise, which explores many of the same themes as Blood & Chocolate.

Although von Garnier slowed down her work schedule in recent years in order to make time for her two young children, she’s now eager to get back to making movies and shortening the gap between projects. While finding the right project remains a challenge, returning to Germany had led to a number of potential opportunities. “It’s taken me time to pick the right one, to find the one that I can sink my teeth into and feel at home in the subject matter.”

Now back in Germany, von Garnier is finding it easier to develop her own ideas. “I have several ideas for movies that I want to move forward. I’ve certainly learned a great deal during my time over there and still want to tap into those resources and at the same time tap into where I am from and that European spirit and combine them.”

She is currently lining up a number of future projects beyond Hector’s Journey, including a film set in Ireland with mystical overtones. Another project in the works would reunite much of the cast of Bandits. “It won’t be a follow-up of Bandits, it will be a new thing but with a similar cast”, she says. “I’ve had the desire for a while to do something with them together because our synergy is unique and creative and a lot of fun. I’ve been working on the script. It’s very exciting!”