11/10/2023 - The Belgian filmmaker talks about his second feature film, which questions the construction of the identity of a boy whose father is a universally hated criminal

(© Aurore Engelen)

We met up with Belgian filmmaker Vivian Goffette, who was premiering at the 38th Namur International French-language Film Festival (FIFF) his second feature film, Clenched Fists [+see also:
film review
interview: Vivian Goffette
film profile], a portrait at child’s height.

Cineuropa: What was the spark that made this project happen?
Vivian Goffette: I don’t know why, but in all my films, I always talk about the relationship to the father. This issue interests me, it’s surely a little unconscious. My father was a writer, and ever since I was very small, every time I went somewhere, people would tell me: "Oh, you’re the son of—!" It was rather nice in my case, but I wondered what effect an opposite situation might have, meaning, what would happen for a child if their father was famous but not someone he could at all boast about? How do you construct yourself in this situation? I constructed myself by being at the same time a little bit in the shadows, and pushed to greater heights. But what would happen to the son of a "monster"? I did a lot of research, intensive documentary work to meet children who have been in this type of situation, but also inmates, psychologists. 

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It is effectively the portrait of a child, everything is seen through his gaze, from his height.
It was essential to really be with him. To live what he is living inside, to try to understand how he can construct himself, how he is living this tension between the desire to see his father, and the interdiction to say that this is his father. He can feel that this isn’t an ideal father, especially since there is an ideal father figure right under his eyes, his neighbour. But he needs to go confront his father.

He is facing a paradox: how to build himself with the worst possible example of a man?
Yes, he is faced with a dizzying question of identity. What of our parents do we have inside ourselves? In what ways might he resemble his father? In fact, the adults always send him back to that question. This boy’s identity is truly torn apart. To reject his father, is also to reject a part of himself. 

While Lucien casts an open gaze on his father, and cannot guess his intentions, the viewer can see the mechanism of control he falls victim to.
Working with Laurent Capelluto was very interesting in that regard. It was really important not to show a monster from the start, since we are seeing him through the eyes of his son. We had to be on the edge. He is a father, Lucien feels like he can feel his love when he sees him. The challenge was to work on these two levels of reading. 

How did you find your main actor, the young Yanis Frish ?
Casting was a long process, especially since I had to do it twice, the film having been cancelled due to Covid. I had to let go of some of the children I had cast. Thankfully, I could keep Yanis, who I’d thought was wonderful. He hadn’t changed too much physically, but he had psychologically, he had very much become a teenager, and showing his feelings was becoming complicated. I therefore slightly rewrote the part. I had to integrate this fact, and we turned Lucien into a boy who has to hide everything, someone who keeps everything inside him. We decided to work this into the film. 

To work with children is first to create a relationship of trust. I would often tell Yanis: I trusted you by choosing you, now it’s your turn to trust me.

What was the biggest challenge for you, and what did you want to communicate the most?
I wanted the viewers to really be with Lucien. There is an overused quote from Godard that says, "you’re making cinema if you’re filming the invisible", and for me, that’s what is inside human beings. What interests me is to capture the things that people don’t want to say. The biggest challenge was to show the interior tension that Lucien was feeling, to communicate his struggle.

(Translated from French)