email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

Andrea Taschler

Producer on the Move 2013 – Hungary

by 

- Andrea Taschler is head of Mirage Film Studio together with Szabolcs Hajdu and is now preparing film adaptations of novels by Dostoyevsky and Boris Vian

Cineuropa: What have been the main stages of your career as a producer?
Andrea Taschler: After graduating from the University of Theatre and Film Arts Budapest, I started work for a newly formed production company Katapult Film with producer Ivan Angelusz as head of production. It was a though start for a newcomer, but it was also very challenging to work on such films as Before Dawn by Balint Kenyeres, White Palms [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Szabolcs Hajdu
film profile
]
by Szabolcs Hajdu and Overnight [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Ferenc Török. By that time, a whole new group of talented Hungarian directors appeared, with a fresh approach and style -György Pálfi, Kornél Mundruczó, Szabolcs Hajdu, Benedek Fliegauf -and they immediately stepped into the international scene with festival successes. So, I started to participate in festivals and co-production forums, and get the sense of opportunities beyond the borders. We had only a few production companies and producers that time, who paid attention to international education and presence, so I thought I'd go for it.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

After Bibliotheque Pascal was premiered in Berlin 2010, we formed our new company Mirage Film Studio with director Szabolcs Hajdu, and our first project Mirage immediately got support and participated on Cinemart, Cinelink, and Paris Project in the same year. It seemed to be a remarkable start, but unfortunately it was the very moment when the Hungarian Film Fund was terminated. All the supports were revoked, and Hungarian producers had very tough period to manage their projects. For two years, all our state-funded films were on hold, Mirage among them. What a great start for a producer! I spent my time with learning: I participated on EPI workshops and applied for EAVE where I graduated from last year. We made some shorts in the meantime and worked on developments. Finally the new film fund started, so we are back to life again.

Can you describe the Mirage Film feature slate?
When we were stuck with Mirage, we desperately wanted to do something independent from the film financing situation in Hungary. We went to Las Vegas and from private sources we started to shoot a modern adaptation of The Gambler by Dostoevsky with European actors. We edited a pilot and we are planning to go back finish the film next year. We were working on Mirage constantly together with my Hungarian partner Gabor Kovacs. The first support came from the Slovak Audiovisual Fund, the second was €1.2 million from the new Hungarian fund. We start shooting at the end of May, and the film will be completed by December. Another current project is Heartsnatcher with director Pater Sparrow, it is a surrealist drama based on Boris Vian's last novel L'Arrache-Coeur (Heartsnatcher). It is in script development stage, I am looking for co-production partners out of Hungary and we are planning to start location scouting and casting during the fall. I participated on EAVE with this project last year and discovered how hard it is to package a film with such an irregular approach. It won't be easy but I love it! We have a couple of more projects in early development stage with young Hungarian directors such as Uhu by György Mór Kárpáti, which is managed by my associate Nándor Lovas, and Breaking the News by Anna Gát.

What type of films are you interested in making?
I am always looking for people with vision. A director to be intense, impulsive, convincing and first of all to bring an interesting story. In Hungary we have long history of author films. Our stories are heavy, personal, and mostly dark, this is the strength of our filmmakers. But these films sometimes having difficulties to reach the audience, although being successful on festivals. Hungarian audience is totally alienated from contemporary cinema by now. I think that this is the first thing we have to work on. The young generation of filmmakers are desperately looking for a new voice, but they are often on a wrong track and trying to ape something: fashionable directors, the American independent style, French gracefulness and so on, or shoot in English because it seems sellable. I don’t believe in that. I believe that we have to find our own stories which also can be appeal to people world-over. Get our own audience back to cinemas but in the same time being international players. Crossover is what interests me the best. I saw Holy Motors [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Leos Carax
film profile
]
by Leos Carax recently, which is a marvelous film. I’d love to make such a film.

Do you have international perspectives involving co-producing with other European countries?
Hungarian films mostly need foreign partners to be fully financed, so we often work together with foreign producers. Bibliotheque Pascal was a co-production with Germany and Holland. In Mirage our partner is MPhilms from Slovakia. It is very important to build international network, and surely not only because of the money. It also broadens the horizon of a project. I am very much interested in making co-production as minority partner too. Currently we are involved in 2 foreign projects: Razor Films' That Trip We Took With Dad, a first feature by Anca Miruna Lazarescu, a beautiful story of a Romanian family during the 1968 "Prague Spring", and the other one is Out by György Kristóf, a young Slovakian-Hungarian director. This film tells a story of a miserable man's last trip through Eastern Europe. Hungary has the potential of being a very valuable co-production partner, because besides the possible state subsidy we have great tax rebate system, big film industry, and good facilities including two operational labs.

  

In collaboration with

(click the logo to access all the Producers on the Move 2013)

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy