26/10/2007

The title of director-producer-screenwriter Andrzej Jakimowski’s second feature film, Tricks [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrzej Jakimowski
interview: Tomasz Gąssowski
film profile], belies the poetic simplicity of a story about a young boy who attempts to bribe fate through small offerings (“tricks”), to reunite his mother with a man he believes is the father who abandoned their family years ago.

Cineuropa caught up with the director at this year’s Venice Film Festival, where the film screened in Venice Days, picking up the section’s Europa Cinema Label award for Best European Film. Since then it won two Golden Lions, for Best Film and Best Cinematography (for DoP Adam Bajerski), at the 32nd Gdynia Polish Film Festival. Jakimowski will now face local audiences once the film is distributed by Kino Świat on October 26.

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Cineuropa: What was your inspiration for this story and your approach to making the film?
Andrzej Jakimowski: It’s just my life – you don’t always have to invent things. The film is not exactly autobiographical, but in a way I had to play with fate somehow and I think I was very mature as a child so it’s easier for me to use my experiences from childhood because I “meet” the me from back then very easily. I can say that I haven’t changed since childhood. I like to make simple stories and my goal is to create a balance between reality and tricks that cannot be real. In a way this story is about me – I am a simple man and I still have to fight and play with fate when making a film.

Simplicity is often the hardest thing to get from an actor, especially non-professional actors such as those in your film. How did you direct them?
It’s very simple! If somebody does something false, you just tell them, “Don’t do that”! If somebody is natural, you just don’t say anything. Nevertheless, simplicity is not easy because you have to choose things that are metaphors. It’s very difficult to choose things so that a film is simple but not silly.

Venice audiences pointed out that the film is reminiscent of a historical Polish cinema that follows in the footsteps of Krzysztof Kieslowski. Would you agree?
Well, traditionally Polish films are not perceived as being humorous, whereas mine are – because our culture is entirely serious! However, it’s also very important for me that my films are serene because I’m always looking to make a kind of cinema that has disappeared, that is no longer being made.

What does the Polish film panorama look like now? We’ll see. It’s changing very quickly so maybe this year we’ll see something interesting at the Gdynia Festival. I haven’t seen the Polish panorama for a year so I don’t know, but there are some very interesting films at the moment.

How big was your budget and how long did it take you to put the financing for the film together?
The budget was €1m, which is not very much [considering] that we have European prices. You have to pay the same prices for film, equipment and everything else as in a Western movie. However, Poland is not a very big country so it’s difficult to get the film into cinemas and earn money from showing it. It’s easier if you’re from a big country.

The financing took a long time. I’m also a producer, I produce my films, because this is the easiest way to achieve what I want, and it took me a year to get the money…which is not too bad, I know…but in that time I could have made another movie! After we had the money, it took us half a year to make the film, from preparations to the final cut. The shoot itself lasted 30 days and we had many problems. The second part of the film had to be a sunny day so we had to keep the continuity but, unfortunately, while shooting last summer we had heavy rains the entire time, it was a disaster.

Has Tricks been picked up for distribution in other countries?
We’ve had a number of offers, we just have to negotiate them now.