Elena Hazanov:

A voice from behind the lens

On March 26 this year the Francophone Film Festival – Bonjour Cinema opened at the National Film Corporation’s auditorium with the screening of the French language Swiss Film ‘Sam’. The event, which was organised by host of institutional partners including the French Embassy and the Canadian High Commission in Colombo, and the Alliance Francaise de Kotte. Below is a Q & A done via email with Elena Hazanov, the talented director of the movie ‘Sam’.

by Dilshan Boange

With experience in directing for both cinema and television, Elena is a filmmaker who is certainly charting an impressive path as a professional and an artist working in the medium of moving images. Here, she talks about her work as a filmmaker.

Q: What made you want to become a film director and can you give a brief description of your body of work as a director so far?

A: Since I was a little girl, I liked to tell stories. I wanted also to be an actress, but very quickly I realized that I prefer to “behind”. So far, I directed 5 features, for TV and cinema, two seasons of a series for the Swiss Television and two documentaries.

Q: What were your initial thoughts when you read the script by Georges and decided to direct the film?

A: I first read it as a potential audience, I liked the story, it touched me and I would like to see it in a cinema. That’s why I had the desire to direct it. The story is the most important thing for me. Of course, I was touched by the main theme of the movie, which is personal and universal in the same time.

Q: What was the extent to which you sought a ‘creative collaboration’ with Georges in the process of the filming? Do you believe it’s important for a director to have a continuous dialogue with the screenwriter or should the director disallow input from the writer when the filming us underway?

A: On the set, Georges was the coach of the young actor, our son Sacha. I think that in the process of preparation, it’s important to have a “creative” collaboration with scriptwriter, it can be useful.

However, it’s important for a director to make the story his own story, to take some freedom in the manner to tell it and to put it into the images. In the cinema. In the TV series for example, it’s different, because the scriptwriter is almost more important than the director.

Q: Generally there is a belief that directing children and animals is the most difficult task a director can be made to do. What was the experience of directing Sam like? Any insights you would like to share about directing children in particular?

A: Yes, it’s definitely difficult to direct animals and children (It’s a cliché, but it’s true. Before starting the shooting, everyone was telling me that directing my son will be even more hard. But finally, it wasn’t. Because I know him very well, I know when he’s really tired, when he’s just pretending to be tired… If a child on a shooting tells you: “I don’t want to do it anymore.” And that you have his parents behind, what can you do? It’s more complicate. But it’s definitely difficult, because the child doesn't play, he IS. So if he’s tires or he has simple enough of it, the camera will immediately feel it.

Q: How has the critical reception for Sam been so far?

A: The opening took place at International Film Festival in Santa Barbara, in USA. The audience really loved the movie, it was full all the time.

Then, the movie travelled all over the world, in New York, where it won the Best Feature, in Madrid, in Sao Paolo where we got the Best Audience Award among 350 other features.

It’s amazing and great to see how the audience from different countries and cultures react to the movie. It’s beautiful to see that despite all our difference, some stories are universal enough to touch us. I heard that when the movie was shown in Sri Lanka it had a great reception too, which makes me very happy.

Q: Are you working on any current project these days? What can be expected from you as your next work of cinema?

A: Now, I’m finishing a movie which I shot in Russia, in Saint Petersburg. It’s an adaptation of a bestseller, written by a famous Russian writer Dina Rubina, it’s called “Puppet syndrome”.