Christina Tournatzés’ first feature-length film, Karla [+lire aussi :
interview : Christina Tournatzés
fiche film], premiered at this year's Filmfest München, in its New German Cinema strand, which showcases a selection of strong national voices. Karla is an intimate drama about a traumatised but combative 12-year-old girl, who accuses her father of sexual abuse. We spoke to the director about her approach to the topic, her cast and her narrative concept.

Cineuropa: You say at the beginning of the movie that it's about a real-life case. How did you come across this story?
Christina Tournatzés: It was Egbert van Wyngaarden who introduced me to writer Yvonne Görlach and BR commissioning editors Claudia Simionescu and Claudia Gladziejewski five years ago, and showed them my short Cargo. When I met Yvonne, the author, all those years ago and she asked me to direct the film – my debut – I said yes almost instantly. The script felt like a priceless treasure: powerful and fragile at the same time. It was a story that needed to be told. Yvonne shared with me that this was the story of a very close family member – someone she had known her entire life. I knew it would be a profound responsibility to give Karla the voice she truly deserves. I embraced that challenge with deep respect. We began searching for a production company and found Achtung Panda, which encouraged us to reduce the form and turn it into an intimate play. So, Yvonne and I adapted the script. As we collaborated closely, our friendship began to grow, and the story became even more personal to me. Little by little, I got to know the real Karla.

In terms of the legal aspects of the material, did you have any support there?
Yvonne had already done a lot of preparatory work. I also spoke to a judge, and we did further research because we still had some unanswered questions. As the case is set in the 1960s and things have changed in the justice system since then, we had to check how we could reflect this in our script. Of course, we summarised this trial and the court proceedings in the script. The legal aspects behind it were important: everything had to be technically possible, albeit sometimes improbable. But even more important to us was the fact that Karla is the narrator of this story. This is a film told from a child's perspective. That is made clear by the first frame, shot from her perspective. As you follow Karla through the film, you realise that she mixes up imagination and reality in her head, which is something that happens a lot to traumatised children. And you reach the point where you realise that the details don’t matter, because Karla gets to tell her story.

Elise Krieps, the daughter of actress Vicky Krieps, plays the leading role. How did this come about?
We were able to ask Vicky directly via our producer Melanie Blocksdorf whether her daughter would like to play the role. We knew that she had already made a short film. We sent Vicky the script, and she was thrilled. It was such good fortune.

How did you work with Elise?
I took a lot of time to build a deep sense of trust with her. Before the shoot, we didn’t rehearse at all; we just hung out and talked about Karla, or just talked. I never overwhelmed her with unnecessary details. If she didn’t feel like talking, we didn’t talk. Vicky was very supportive. She wasn't on set that often, but she provided emotional support to Elise. We quickly came up with the idea that Elise would not read the script at all. It would be enough for her to know her perspective and then, bit by bit, go through the same development as the character over the course of the story. For that, it was necessary for us to shoot chronologically. Of course, we told her the story and who Karla is, but we figured that she did not have to know the full weight of it at once. It worked out perfectly: she always prepared for the actual day of shooting. But at a certain point, she got curious and read the rest of the script anyway. What mattered most to me was striking that balance – making sure she felt safe while still giving her a sense of autonomy.

Were there certain measures in place to make it easier for Elise to deal with this difficult topic?
Karla’s aim was to be heard without having to speak the “inexpressible”. We were committed to that same principle. Just as the real Karla refuses to say anything she doesn’t want to – or can’t – say, we ensured that Elise, too, would never be made to say or do anything degrading or shame-inducing. This was especially crucial in the flashbacks. There, I made a radical creative decision: to show the flashbacks exclusively from Karla’s point of view. The flashbacks are deliberately non-voyeuristic and never reconstruct the abuse. In fact, they were filmed entirely without the actress.

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