Short interview: Shalimar Preuss

How long did it take to make your short? Was it difficult to get financing?
It took me a year to make this short from the moment I wrote it to the time we screened it for the first time. And if there were any difficulties to find funds, my producer didn’t let me feel them.

Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “European cinema community”?
Huillet & Straub, Pedro Costa, or Ken Loach? Otar Iosseliani, Krzysztof Kieslowski, or perhaps Michael Haneke?

If you owned a theatre for one night, which films would you screen?
Faces (John Cassavetes), Los Muertos (Lissandro Alonso), Grey gardens (Maysles Brothers), La commune (Peter Watkins), Una giornata particolare (Ettore Scola), Mother and Son (Aleksandr Sokurov) one of Naomi Kawase’s films, They shoot horses don’t they? (Sydney Pollack), Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul), The last Tycoon (Elia Kazan)… But the night is too short…

What is your next project?
I’m working on my first feature film, Un Médianoche (A Midnight Supper).

Courtesy of European Film Academy, 2011.