Legendary Bronx-born US indie director Abel Ferrara (the man behind such cult hits as Bad Lieutenant and King of New York) was in Berlin this weekend with his new feature doc, Turn In The Wound (screening as a Berlinale special).
The film offers a portrait of the Ukrainian people at war. It includes testimony about their horrific experiences after the full-scale invasion. In complete contrast, it also shows the artist and singer Patti Smith performing and reflecting on her work.
“So far nothing has hindered me physically from doing the gig. You know, it’s a physical job,” the director insists he is still fighting fit for moviemaking at the age of 72. Yes, the job comes with tensions but he can deal with them. ‘It’s not the stress, it’s how you deal with the stress….all these triggers that get you angry. It’s alright getting angry. It’s how you deal with your anger.”
In the new documentary, Ferrara is shown reflecting at length on human nature. What on earth drives the Russians to commit these terrible crimes against their near neighbours whose land they invade? Are humans hard-wired to be violent?
“I don’t know. I’ve had three children. I see them when they’re born…they don’t look [violent],” the director muses. “I am a Buddhist too. I think you’re born enlightened and then….” His voice tails off. “I don’t believe in the devil but when you read about and see these things up front, close up and personal, you’ve got to entertain the idea [that evil exists]. OK, I get that some [people] have serious mental issues. It’s a medical thing. But that’s not who is fighting all these wars. These are logical, cogent people who have come to the conclusion that murder is a fucking option.”
Ferrara has many Russian friends. “I love that country,” he states. When he was living in New York, he was “surrounded by Russian people.” He is married to a Moldovan whose mother grew up in the USSR.
The director himself was a kid in the 1950s, at the height of the Cold War, a period when the Russians were the foe. “But by having an enemy, you become knowledgeable.” He went on to visit Russia several times and rhapsodises about the beauty of Moscow and St Petersburg. He reveres Russian writers and filmmakers.
“Our world view is somewhere between Tolstoy and Dostoevsky,” he suggests. “Come on, they invented the fucking theatre acting that I use,” he adds, referring to Stanislavsky.
But then, the Russian army “rolled into Ukraine” and he simply couldn’t make sense of it.
“These issues are so complex but I just want to put out there what my observations were. I am not the guy to come to for conclusions.”
What did he make of the death of opposition leader Navalny in a remote Russian prison a few days ago?
“It’s a fucking nightmare. It’s inevitable. Again, what can I say? Practically speaking, why the fuck did he go back there…what do they say, the first law of the revolutionary is stay out of jail! But it’s a heartache. There’s the guy representing the free election. There ain’t going to be any free election there.”
Ferrara was in Italy when the full-scale invasion took place. He had seen what Putin had done in Crimea and elsewhere. “But it always takes you by surprise when they’re dropping fucking buildings with civilians in them.”
The US director spoke to his Ukrainian filmmaker friends and they told him. ‘the Russians, you’ve got to fight them.’ “They were ready,” he adds.
Early on in the documentary, a Ukrainian grandmother talks on camera about an agonising choice she faced – whether to try to save her daughter or her granddaughter.
“It’s hard to top that [woman],” the director notes of her heartrending testimony. This was the kind of moment of complete emotional truth that is very hard to capture in a dramatic movie. “We just put the camera there. We obviously talked to a lot more people than are in the movie but I had a sixth sense about who might be [a compelling interview].”
Ferrara doesn’t see himself as a journalist. He is simply pointing the lens at people “with a story to tell…we’re not doing any pre-judgement, we’re not doing anything. This woman is nice enough to talk to us, we’re filming it simple as fucking pie, bro. We’ve got the baby cameras and they’re right in her fucking face.”
Alongside the testimony from Ukrainian citizens, there is also an interview with the president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “He seemed like a straight-up guy,” Ferrara says of the country’s wartime leader. “I just wanted to keep it [the interview] just like it was with everybody else. I didn’t approach him like he was the president. I’m impressed with everything he has fucking done…I’m not an expert on the inner workings of that fucking government. For me, he is sitting in there. He’s a straight shooter. He is talking to me straight.”
As for the decision to include Patti Smith in the film, she is there to represent art and creativity as a contrast to the destructiveness unleashed by the Russians. “You’ve got two choices. You’re on the death side or you’re on the life side,” he says of how Smith fits into the doc.
The film has its stomach-churning moments. “The guy is blown off his fucking bike and the dog is sitting there watching over his body. It feels like it’s hardcore, bro.”
Ukraine is a no-fly zone for civilian aircraft. Ferrara therefore travelled there by train. “It’s all fucking night. They’ve got to switch the tracks,” he says of the gruelling journey. “It’s scary.”
Ferrara went to Ukraine for a week “the first time” and then came back to shoot extra footage of the soldiers and the interview with Zelenskyy. “It’s a fucking nightmare,” he says of life in the war-torn city. “People are going to try and live normal any chance they get but normal life is out the fucking window when people are trying to kill you…”
The veteran director will be returning to more familiar turf with his next movie, a gangster picture called American Nails that will star Willem Dafoe and Asia Argento. Due to shoot in southern Italy, it’s inspired by the tragic Greek story of Phaedra and her lust for her stepson.
What has brought him to the gangster genre? “I’ve no idea. I just go where the muse takes me,” Ferrara sighs.As for Patti Smith, Ferrara can’t hide his admiration for her. “I got to meet her not long. I know all about her but working with her was special. She’s….Wow!”
