An Interview with Amy Hesketh, Director of Sirwiñakuy
Your film Sirwiñakuy
- I know we have talked about this before [click
here], but could you bring us up to speed, what is it about and
what does the expression "Sirwiñakuy" actually mean?
“Sirwiñakuy” refers to an indigenous custom still
practiced by some Aymaras in Bolivia, in which a man takes his potential wife,
basically kidnapping her, to his house to live with him. It’s like a
try-out. If they get along, she cooks and cleans well, she gets along with his
family, they marry. If it doesn’t work out, she goes back to her house, more
or less in shame.
How did you actually first learn about the indigenous tradition of sirwiñakuy,
and what inspired you to translate this into a modern day story?
I learned about the sirwiñakuy
living here in Bolivia, it’s commonly talked about, joked about, etc.
Also, a friend of Jac’s, Henriette Szabo PhD., is an anthropologist, a
specialist in Bolivian indigenous groups, she defined it really well in
her Dictionary of Bolivian Anthropology.
I didn’t actually translate
the sirwiñakuy into my story, I wrote the script long before I came to
Bolivia, and adapted it to here, changed the characters a bit, but made
them more or less universal. When reading the script, Jac Avila
[Jac
Avila interview - click here] pointed out to
me that it was a modern day sirwiñakuy, so the movie carries that title.
The story is, for me, a story
that could be told anywhere, but is particularly suited to Bolivia,
because of the different types of people here, the decadence of the upper
classes, and the awkwardness that would result from a BDSM relationship in
a country in which BDSM as a concept and a subculture is still very, very
underground. In many other countries you can find clubs and stores,
sometimes street fairs, that cater to a booming BDSM community. Not here.
The major differences between my
Sirwiñakuy
and the indigenous practice are that Anouk and Luis are
testing each other, and she doesn’t lift a finger in the entire movie,
he does all of the cooking and cleaning.
I think a key factor concerning the atmosphere of Sirwiñakuy
is the apartment most of it was filmed in. How did you get the place, and
did you already have it (or some place similar) in mind when writing the
movie?
The house is
really a character in the movie, it’s a family house owned for
generations by Veronica Paintoux’s mother’s family, the Bedregals.
Veronica worked it out so that we could use the third floor, and the
Radisson Hotel was wonderful to give us rooms there for two weeks to lodge
Veronica and her family while we invaded their home.
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Amy Hesketh directing Veronica Paintoux
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I loved working there, I would
live there if I could, all those books, the history, it’s so complex.
You could take years getting to know that house, just like you would a
person.
On to your actors: Veronica Paintoux - how did
you get her and what convinced you she would be perfect for the role?
I had never met Veronica, but
had seen in her a supporting role in Jac Avila’s film
Martyr. The
chemistry she and Jac had in that movie made me think they would be good
together in
Sirwiñakuy. They have tension together, good tension, and
that was key to the couple in the story. We called her up and she said
that she would do it.
Veronica is a great actress, she
doesn’t talk a lot about the character, she reads the script, and then
asks key questions, builds her character, and voilá: perfection.
I have to confess that I was
really nervous when I met her the first time, greeting her and her
youngest daughter at the airport. Veronica is a person who is in constant
motion, she never sits for
long, I suddenly became unsure that she would be able to play quiet, calm
Anouk. Obviously, my fears were unfounded, she channels Anouk wonderfully.
As this was my first film, I was nervous about asking her to do certain
things in the movie, like the masturbation scene. But Veronica is a very
open, unselfconscious person so she didn’t have a problem with anything.
Jac
Avila [Jac Avila & Amy
Hesketh interview - click here], who plays the male lead, has been
a longtime collaborator of yours. How did you two first meet, actually?
And did you write his character with him in mind (at least to a point),
and to what an extent are you influenced by him as a director?
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Veronica Paintoux and Jac Avila
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Jac and I met for the first time
at a film festival in Oruro, Bolivia in 2005, where he was screening his
film
Martyr. I liked his film and thought we should work together and he
apparently thought the same thing, because we’ve been doing just that
for nearly 7 years now.
I wrote the male character (Luis
Montéz) long before I met Jac, but I tailored it a bit to him when the
movie was greenlighted, and changed parts of the character to a type of
man that can be found in La Paz. This made the character easier for him to
indentify with.
Jac does not influence me as a
director. In fact, we tend to have superficial arguments about directing
styles, especially when I’m directing him. Later on, he sees the footage
and understands why I did what I did, and loves it. We have a mutual
respect for each other.
Sometimes I feel like it’s
easier to be a woman director, I have a gentler touch and people respond
differently to me than they would to a man. I also use humor, that helps.
Some actors have told me that
working with me is like therapy, in more or less words. I deal with really
difficult issues in my films. The actors have to suffer. But I’ve never
had anyone hate me after working with me in a movie. And one actress
thanked me afterward for putting her through what I did in
Barbazul.
Catharsis doesn’t come from sitting on the couch.
The more movies I make, the more
I delve into the darkness of the human condition. I work out a lot of
issues in my movies. At the same time, I can’t take the humor out of my
films. Horrible things happen in life, it’s best to laugh and cry about
them to understand them better.
With
your movie touching a controversial subject, what can you tell us about
critical and audience reception of Sirwiñakuy?
The critical reception here in
Bolivia was polemic. The comments ranged from calling me daring to saying
that I inhabit the last circle of hell. Nevertheless, the movie ran for 5
months because of audience demand. The audience talked about the movie,
it’s popularity spread basically by word of mouth. I showed up after a
few screenings to talk with the audience as well and their comments were
interesting.
In Bolivia, some people mistook
the sadomasochism for domestic violence or violence against women. Half of
the audience felt that Anouk knew what she was doing, it was her choice,
and that she grew from her experiences. The other half thought that I was
evil and was promoting violence.
A friend of mine said that the
movie is like a mirror for the viewer, they see what they project. For
instance, in your review, you seem to think that Anouk was raped by Luis
in the movie, when she doesn’t say “no” or protest. You’re seeing
what you want to see, and a lot of people also did that when they saw the
film. Some even swear that they heard her say “no” at the beginning of
the sex scene.
When I showed the movie in New
York City in the
CineKink 2012 film festival, it was another reception
entirely. The audience laughed at the funny parts, and had a lot to say to
me afterward. One woman came up to me and said that I had expressed
something in
Sirwiñakuy
that she never had the words to say. A lot of the
audience really liked the movie. And the criticism I received was
extremely positive.
Since
Sirwiñakuy, you
have actually directed two more movies, Barbazul and Le Marquis
de la Croix. Want to talk about those for a bit, and how do they
compare to Sirwiñakuy?
Each is a different type of film.
Sirwiñakuy is a more intimate story that centers around two
characters. The camera, and thus the audience are flies on the wall,
voyeurs of what happens in the movie. We see the characters’ cotidian
lives as well as the more exciting bits. Everything combines into the
events, large and small, that shape their relationship.
Barbazul is based on Bluebeard,
the children’s story written by Charles Perrault in 1697. Barbazul (a
contraction of “barba” (beard) and “azul” (blue)) is a serial
killer, he kills his wives. I chose to make the movie a bit campy, and
worked with cinematographer Miguel Canedo to bring something of a classic
Italian 70’s cinema look to the movie. He basically read my mind and
made it into image. The visual aspect also helps the viewer digest what
they’re seeing because the subject matter is very dark, and I don’t
gloss over that darkness.
Le Marquis de la Croix is more
full-on camp, it’s based on the writings of the Marquis de Sade, and I
kept some of the dark humor present in his stories. After
Barbazul I
wanted to make a really violent sexy film, more grindhouse style, and this
movie popped into being. After a couple of weeks of shooting, of course.
People keep asking me when this one will be released, because they’ve
seen some of the photos from the shooting.
You
have recently also starred in Jac Avila's upcoming Dead But Dreaming [Jac
Avila interview - click here] - a few words about that one?
We’re
still shooting
Dead but Dreaming, a vampire epic taking place in several
different eras. I have a difficult role, lots of really awful things
happen to me in the movie. But it’s a good role with a good arc.
That’s important to me as an actor, the character arc. She’s
completely different from Mariana in
Maleficarum.
Any
future projects you'd like to talk about?
We’re
planning to shoot my fourth movie this year, called
Adela (working title),
about a family of vampires. It’s loosely based on the Robert Louis
Stevenson short story
Ollala, which was the first story to go into
the idea of genetic vampirism, what was later discovered to be a rare
genetic disease called porferia.
Your website,
Facebook, whatever else?
http://vermeerworks.com
http://movies.vermeerworks.com
http://facebook.com/amyhesketh
http://amyhesketh.blogspot.com
Anything else you are dying to
mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
Sirwiñakuy
is now avilable on DVD at
http://vermeerworks.com/store/dvds
and and for download at
http://movies.vermeerworks.com
Thanks for
the interview!
