14/11/2022 - The Greek filmmaker speaks about the process of adjusting to new realities, which is the profound leitmotif behind her second feature

We talked to Maria Douza about her second film, Listen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maria Douza
film profile], featuring a hearing-impaired teenager who is forced to part with the world she is familiar with and get used to a new environment. The film has just premiered in the International Competition of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, before heading to Cairo and Tallinn Black Nights.

Cineuropa: Is there a real-life story behind the plot of Listen?
Maria Douza: No, I invented it all. The only scene inspired by true events is the closing one, but let’s not comment on it now, as that would be a spoiler. However, what I can say is that I wanted to make a film that would reach that final moment, and I came up with a story that would bring me there.

The film deals with the subject of returning and unresolved family affairs – a daughter who goes back to her father and his new wife, just like in your debut, The Tree and the Swing [+see also:
trailer
interview: Maria Douza
film profile]. What draws you to this leitmotif?
It is a coincidence, I must say, although God might know why there are common features between the two films [laughs]. I didn’t think of it as the central topic, and there isn’t a specific reason for this connection. In Listen, I wanted to place the main character, Varmira, in this situation of a very big life shift, to bring something that would alter her life crucially. In order to do that, I added her backstory, in which she lived with her grandmother in Athens and studied in this prestigious school, providing her with a good upbringing as a deaf person. But my idea was to interrupt her comfortable life suddenly with the death of the grandmother, so she gets forced to live with her estranged father and his new family on this remote island, where she has to attend a regular school and also adjust to a new family. I created this environment in order to be able to mirror her problems through the people around her. The characters reflect each other’s issues, and they all face isolation in their personal relationships or within the community.

While watching the film, I was not thinking so much about isolation, but rather about the issue of adapting to the other and to new circumstances. Listen is a co-production between Greece and Bulgaria. Is the issue of adaptation something typical for the Balkan region?
Yes it is, but in this global world, it is a common tendency everywhere. People always have problems with adaptation, whether they are forced to move or they do it of their own free will. In order to adapt, people need to understand each other and really make an effort – that’s my point in the film. It’s not simply about respecting others’ rights; the real work is much harder. I myself lived abroad, in England, and I never felt discriminated against or anything, but I simply had the impression that people there did not understand me. Coming from Greece and having studied Byzantine history, I was very proud and thought we were the centre of the world, but there I realised that nobody gives a damn. Now, this is a very long time ago, but back then, I was shocked, and I suspect that when I was writing the story, these sentiments of not being understood or heard came to the surface.

The stepmother, who is a foreigner and is played by Bulgarian actress Yoana Bukovska-Davidova, does not know sign language and belongs to another culture. In this regard, her character also contributes to this sense of “foreignness”.
It does, together with the character of Ari, her son from a previous marriage, who speaks Greek and grew up there, but he is seen by the others as a foreigner and gets bullied at school. He is pushed into that position, and he accepts it unwillingly. Actually, everybody in the house, including her Greek father, who does not get along with the villagers, has a problem with adaptation. As for the mother in particular, at first, I had planned for her to be Georgian because plenty of Georgian women work in Greece, but when the Bulgarians boarded the production, her nationality was logically chosen to be Bulgarian. This swap also dictated slight changes in the script – the Georgian character was supposed to be more discriminated against owing to possible issues with papers, while the Bulgarian woman is better positioned as an EU citizen. She is even doing better than her husband because she earns more money.

How did you decide to make it as a co-production with Bulgaria?
We went to various co-production forums, such as Meetings on the Bridge and When East Meets West, and during this search, we were introduced to Ivan Tonev from Ars Digital, who liked the project a lot. He was very keen to get involved, and he participated in quite a constructive way, as he helped me finalise the script. I was impressed with the interesting feedback we got from Bulgaria in general, and also from the National Film Center.