12/04/2022 - We talk to the Swiss director about his film, in which he reconstructs the kidnapping of two Swiss tourists in Pakistan and their controversial release eight months later

(© Bif&st)

The title of the film, And Tomorrow We Will Be Dead [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michael Steiner
film profile], sounds like a cruel sentence, but one that was fortunately never carried out. It is well known that Daniela Widmer and David Och, the two young Swiss tourists kidnapped in Pakistan in 2011 and whose true story is the subject of Swiss director Michael Steiner's latest feature, managed to escape from their captivity after eight months in the hands of the Taliban and save their skins. However, once back home, they were met with a wave of mistrust from the media, who did not believe their story and, above all, did not believe that a ransom had not been paid to free them. We talked about this with the director at the 13th Bif&st in Bari, where the film was screened in competition in the International Panorama section.

Cineuropa: The story goes back 11 years, you met Daniela and David shortly after their release and immediately thought of making a film out of it. Why did it take so many years to make it?
Michael Steiner: The first reason is that it took a long time to finance the film. Nobody believed their story and the financiers didn't agree with our version of events, which was the truth about Daniela and David. The second reason is that there were several drafts of the screenplay; it was not easy to condense into one script eight months of captivity and what they experienced during that time in two hours of film. It was very difficult to decide what to keep, what to shoot and how to shoot it.

How did you do your research over the years?
The research work was very thorough. When I read in the newspapers that two Swiss citizens had been kidnapped in Pakistan and then transported 400 kilometres away from where they had been taken, I became curious, and when they returned home I contacted them, I wanted to talk to them to find out what had happened. They were very open with me from the beginning, the media was attacking them and somehow they hoped I could really make a film to tell their truth.

Why didn’t the press believe their version of events?
A major Swiss newspaper had an informant on the spot who had gathered probably false information that it was impossible for the two hostages to free themselves and escape. All the other media embraced this version of events without checking, so Daniela and David were saddled with a sentence without appeal. For years, I talked to them and saw the sadness in their eyes, the difficulty of resuming their lives in their own country. And to this day, no one has admitted their mistake or apologised to them.

What in particular convinced you of the truthfulness of Daniela and David's story?
All these journalists had not received any first-hand information, and had not investigated in any way. At that point, I understood that I had to turn to diplomacy in order to check the veracity of that story. So I went to the various embassies, especially the one in Pakistan, where they told me they had no idea what had happened. Basically, when Daniela and David managed to escape, they found themselves in front of an embassy that was not organised to receive them: the ambassador even arrived later, because he had another appointment that day. From there I understood that their story was true.

The film mixes action and strong emotions. How did you work with the actors, Morgane Ferru and Sven Schelker?
It was hard every day to go back to those feelings, to what it can mean to be a hostage. We worked with a coach, who followed us to India where we shot. It's hard to understand how you can feel after 250 days of captivity, you can only imagine it, it's a strange feeling that's hard to reproduce: it was a tough shoot for them and for me.

The film also shows flashes of humanity from the Taliban. In particular, from Taliban leader Nazarjan. Was this really the case?
Nazarjan wanted David to become a Taliban, there was a kind of friendship between them. I didn't want to make a film where you only see bad people, it was important for me to take a deeper look at the characters; I studied anthropology in the past, I'm interested in seeing what people are like. There would have been so many human stories to tell, I chose just a few.

When the film was released in Switzerland, what were the reactions of the public?
Not many people saw it because when the film was released, Covid returned and all the films flopped. At the festivals where it was shown, it was well received. I think it's a film that invites you to look beyond the headlines, a tense film that makes you think. Women in particular empathise with Daniela, they admire her. It's a very feminine film, and this is something that came out later, I didn't think about it when I made it.

(Translated from Italian)