Isa Willinger’s new doc project derives from the assertion made by the late Ukrainian director Kira Muratova that “Women are slaves, so they make vengeful films. They tell it like it is.” Willinger will set out to test this claim through discussion with, and analysis of the films by, some of contemporary cinema’s loudest and most articulate female voices. German producer Alex Tondowski explains to BDE.
No Mercy is described as “a journey to the greatest female film directors of our times to talk about cinema,” and includes a wishlist of interviewees that includes the likes of fiction directors Tilda Swinton, Kathryn Bigelow, Andrea Arnold, Rungano Nyoni, Céline Sciamma, Maren Ade and Ana Lily Amirpour. With finance secured from ZDF/Arte, the film will be 80 minutes with a 52-minute small screen version.
In the film Willinger will set out to explore if what Muratova said is true? Do women directors indeed make harsher films? Is vengeance perhaps a hidden thread in the history of female filmmaking? Or is it a thing of the past, a condition of the 1970s, 80s and 90s, from Chantal Akerman’s ground-breaking Jeanne Dielman to Catherine Breillat’s Romance? What does harshness in films mean anyway? And last but not least, do female filmmakers bring a different experience to their films or is this talk about a specific female perspective useless altogether?
Producer Alex Tondowski says he got “very excited” by the project because it examines the notion of the ‘female gaze’ from a new perspective, that of vengeance. “I hadn’t heard of it…And then we started talking to Arte, and they got very excited about it. And honestly, we’ve encountered so much overwhelming enthusiasm about the project? This vengeance. It’s very funny, women especially get extremely excited about – ‘hey, let’s go for it’ – It’s kind of like there’s a power that comes out of it. And I think the timing is right… There’s a great response right now in the market for something like this.”
“And in these conversations she [Willinger] addresses, of course, this thesis by Muratova. Not all of these directors agree with this. That’s also a very important point. What’s really nice is that, of course, Isa is as also a film director. And so she’s meeting other film directors. So it’s colleagues in a certain way having a conversation.” adds Tondowski, before further explaining how the film will be structured.
“So one layer is her interviews in special locations, meaning visually strong locations with these directors. The second layer is clips from these directors’ films, illustrating or counter illustrating what has been talked about.” The third layer, he continues would be more illustrative, utilising a visual language to address the film’s thesis. “I wouldn’t call it a fictional layer but a visual layer…that will probably be shot in a studio, maybe some underwater, shots of body, of harshness, of conflict. So she’s searching for pictures to illustrate this without only using footage from films. And these three layers will be interwoven on top of her traveling to meet these directors. So it’s an intertwining of four layers.”
Tondowski says that he is currently working with a lawyer for rights clearance, especially where studios are concerned, such as in the case of Kathryn Bigelow. “We’ve budgeted big for these rights, because we know [they are] expensive but it also has to do the directors in general. We’re having great reactions from all these directors about the project, and where these directors have influence on their rights, I think they will help as much as they can.”
The producer further emphasises the qualities of director Willinger and why he believes she is perfect for this project. “First of all, she’s a very quiet down to earth pragmatic person, which is nice as a producer (he laughs), but she has an incredible way of telling stories visually,” Tondowski enthuses.
Her last film AI. Love Stories from the Future was screened at more than 50 international film festivals (incl IDFA, Nyon, Hotdocs, Sheffield) and received a hatful of international awards as well as a nomination for the German Film Awards. “The way she tells it visually is just overwhelming,” he underlines. “And she doesn’t have a specific subject. She is doing things across the board in different directions, and she’s also preparing her first fictional film. So she really has in a certain way, a talent and a craft to really go deep into a subject and to distil its essence.”
And what qualifies Tondowski Films to make a film such as No Mercy? “I think it’s funny…up to now, 90% of our films are women directors. We are a company – my wife (Ira) and I have the company together. I think that’s also why a lot of women directors come to us. There is a specific way, how we work with directors in development, in the accompanying of these projects that we do. We invest a hell of a lot of time and money in projects. We take our time, we don’t rush things, we’re very much partners in making these films okay.”
Ninety per cent is an astonishingly high number. Can Tondowski elaborate? “Maybe it’s subject matter, maybe it’s timing, maybe it’s luck. I have no idea actually, why it is the way it is, but it definitely wasn’t a decision of saying we are here to do produce women’s films,” he admits. “It’s just the way it’s happened over the past 10, 15 years – fantastic! And I think because of the reputation, then it kind of snowballs and then, I would say, 75% requests are from women now because they know Tondowski – ‘they produce good women films’ – so they come to us.”
