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ZURICH 2024

Sarah Winkenstette • Réalisatrice de Greetings from Mars

“Il n'y a rien de mieux que d'être assis dans une salle de cinéma pleine d'enfants : on a ainsi le privilège d'avoir leurs réactions sans filtre”

par 

- La réalisatrice allemande nous parle de sa nouvelle comédie dramatique, qui s'adresse au jeune public, et de son petit héros

Sarah Winkenstette • Réalisatrice de Greetings from Mars
(© Barak Shrama)

Cet article est disponible en anglais.

Sarah Winkenstette is taking part in the ZFF Kinder strand of the Zurich Film Festival with her latest effort, Greetings from Mars [+lire aussi :
interview : Sarah Winkenstette
fiche film
]
, a comedy-drama featuring a youthful protagonist and aimed at a young audience.

Cineuropa: This is not your first children's film. What do you like in particular about this type of movie?
Sarah Winkenstette:
On the one hand, it's because of the audience. I really enjoy working for children because I think it's important to present them with stories that tell them about the reality of life in their own country or in their own world, steering clear of “popcorn” action cinema like Minions and the Pixar films. There is nothing better than sitting in a cinema full of children, as you get to see their unfiltered reactions. I think every filmmaker should experience that. Children are a better audience than adults.

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Apart from that, I also enjoy working with children. It's very touching to see the joy they take in acting. However, you have to prepare children's roles very intensively because they are usually not able to help with the design of the characters or to give input in the same way as adult actors do.

Why was it important for you to say only at the end of the film that Tom, the protagonist, is autistic?
We were wondering whether or not we should say it at all. We then decided not to say it until the end, because that's how it is in life. We meet people and perhaps find them odd or think they react strangely. Often, we never find out why they do that. I wanted the audience to dive into this film, watch this boy and not have a diagnosis for him straight away. It was important to me that children could first think for themselves about why he was doing certain things. That stimulates the imagination. We decided to say that he's autistic at the end, also because this opens up the possibility that the audience might look more closely into the topic and develop an interest for people who are affected.

Did you do any special research on the subject yourself?
Firstly, the script was read several times by experts. Secondly, I met families specifically affected by autism, and I also attended therapy sessions. I then took one of the boys I met as a role model. He wasn't interested in astronomy, but he was just as intensely into a different subject and had certain gestures that inspired me when I was coming up with Tom.

What were the most important elements for the visual concept?
It was about showing Tom's perspective. We used the animations to visualise his dream world. These are the moments when he is doing well and when we see his idea of space. They symbolise his great talent for astronomical calculations. To express Tom's autism, we chose different elements to mimic a broken filter. Experts have explained to me that autistic people have no filter for perceiving the world. They see and hear everything equally. They do not prioritise. In order to visualise this, we thought about it for a long time and carried out many tests. We then decided in favour of so-called tilt-and-shift lenses. He sees things alternately in focus and out of focus, usually not seeing what he should or wants to focus on.

How did you decide that Tom would be enthusiastic about astronomy? What is your own link to it?
That was already set in the novel that we adapted. Personally, I had no connection to astronomy at all, but I took a crash course with an astrophysicist. He read the script and helped us adapt it believably. We had expert advice available the whole time.

How did you go about casting the three children and Tom in particular?
We used a traditional casting agent who really only works with child actors. She made suggestions, and then we did live castings. Then, at one point, we also did group castings.

What were the preparations like?
I'm a big fan of rehearsals that take place in the run-up to filming. It's not enough to rehearse just one day or even one hour beforehand. We rehearsed the weekend before, and I also rehearsed with everyone. And with Theo Kretschmer, who plays Tom, I did so even more often. We also had a child acting coach who visited him at home. It was important, since it was his very first role.

What were the biggest challenges in this production?
The biggest challenge was shooting with a child who is in almost every scene and who had never acted before. Neither the parents nor the child knew exactly what they were letting themselves in for. It was therefore important for Theo to feel as comfortable as possible, but we could never be completely sure whether he would hold out until the end. Fortunately, he did, and it turned out great.

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