Love, summer and airplanes: an interview with Alante Kavaite

Alantė Kavaitė is a Lithuanian film director. Summer of Sangaile is her second movie.

Redmond Bacon: What I liked about the film is that it deals with a lot of serious issues such as fear of success and self-harm, but within a bittersweet manner, so there’s lightness throughout. Was it important to you to keep it light?

Alante Kavaite: I’m twenty years separated from my characters. With a distance I see that all the suffering I had at that period of life was necessary to grow up. They were only steps to becoming what I am. I thought I saw too many movies about this similar age that are really dark. I think I wanted to make  the kind of movie I would have liked to see as a teenager.

RB: What I also really liked about the movie is that it depicted a lesbian relationship but it was not presented as a spectacle – there were no coming out scenes or dramas about finding your sexuality. Was it important to you to portray it like this?

AK: I know we are far away from an ideal society where it will not be something anymore but I really think it was important to show it this way.

RB: Some critics have been comparing your film to Blue is the Warmest Colour. Is this an inspiration at all?

AK: It’s a very strange question from the critics. They must understand that you don’t do a film in two months. When Blue is the Warmest Colour came out in Cannes I was already in preparation with my movie, I was in Lithuania and my script was already written. I saw it but I was already in my film. I shot in the summer of 2013 so I saw it after. We are in opposite aesthetic directions. I don’t understand the comparison, maybe because it’s about two girls in love. Maybe we don’t have enough lesbian films.

RB: I like the way you depicted the summer. The film was shot on digital but you added grain later which I thought gave it a hazy, nostalgic look. Were you trying to evoke that perfect youthful summer with this effect?

AK: Yes, I worked a lot with sensation more than words, so the image and the sound were just as important. Nostalgic.. maybe nostalgic because what looks nostalgic is maybe recreation itself. Maybe because I chose an aesthetic from the 60s, where you have concrete buildings, you have the power plant next to where they live, you have some strange sculptures, and models from the Soviet era and also my character Austé – who lives in the concrete building – she listens to vintage swinging sixties Lithuanian music, and she designs dresses that also have a little bit of the sixties style. But the cinematography itself… I didn’t want to put a colour grading effect to make it nostalgic, I think it’s more the other elements that makes you feel this way. I thought a lot about the Japanese cinema of the sixties as well. I have a fixed frame because I have a character who is dreaming about flying so I really need to shoot the movie with a really fixed frame with no exceptions and it was really challenging and it caused quite a big fight with the crew because it’s not so easy to do so.

RB: How did you achieve those stunning aerial shots? Was it on a helicopter or a drone?

AK: On the ground everything is fixed. In the middle I wanted to do something between the earth where Sangailé is stuck with her fears and the stunt planes that do the acrobatics one hundred metres high. So I used the octocopter, it’s a helicopter with a small camera that flies in between. Then for the stunt planes we used twelve different types of camera. But no professional camera can fit inside a stunt plane. We didn’t know which camera to rig so we just took everything we had and played with it. We had to try all twelve types of camera. We were like children in a sandbox.

RB: Aiste’s bedroom is very unique. How much thought did you put into the production design?

AK: Yes it was almost like a character in the film. I worked a lot with contrasts. Sangaile’s bedroom is completely empty, Aistes room is completely full. I wanted to play with the symmetry and asymmetry between the two girls. I think everyone in the crew put something in Aistes room to make it the opposite of Sangaile’s room.

Maybe we don’t have enough lesbian films.

RB: There’s also the class difference between the two girls as well. It’s interesting because Aiste has less economically but she makes more of her room but Sangaile has the better house yet she has nothing in it.

AK: Exactly –  I thought a lot about this. I really wanted to focus a lot on individuals, thinking that a lot of things depend on who you are inside. Aiste has nothing or almost nothing, she needs to work at the power plant and at the air show, but she still does anything she wants. Sangaile has everything but she doesn’t know what to do with that.

RB: The struggle comes from within? And you use of a lot of poetic imagery to express this. Do you have a special intention behind each image, for instance the tapeworm. That was interesting and I wondered what it represented?

AK: Thinking about symbols and metaphors, I really work a lot with that. A lot of elements in the film are significant for me. Every element in the film was important. Talking about the tapeworm, it’s more about sensation. I wanted to work with emotions more than words. And actually it’s the only true element of my childhood. Because I was in this city and I saw a fisherman by this huge artificial lake which is warmer than the others because of the power plant there, and there was a fish with an open stomach with a tapeworm inside it. This happens in cold countries with warm lakes. This was something I had in my childhood fears and nightmares, and I wanted to use it. But it’s more about sensation than a metaphor for something.

RB: I think your movie is actually very romantic, but it’s not so much about what people do or say or it’s more in how they look and smile at each other, and music plays a strong part in this as well. How did you try and toe the line between making a good romance without stepping into Hollywood cliches?

AK: It comes through the music. The spirit of life comes through music. From the beginning of the writing I knew that I wanted this movie to be very musical, and kind of pop. You have these swinging sixties songs, but I also wanted today’s music. Now about romantics. It is not the main subject, the love story. I wanted to depict the good side of romance. Sangaile will grow up to be open, she’ll come out of her shell, thanks to someone who just looks at her in a different way.

RB: That’s what I thought gave the film its empathy and sweet heart. Also the sex scenes, I thought they had a nice sweetness to them. They were sensual and erotic but also but worked really well to express their love for each other, especially in that scene when they are lit by those red swirling lights and they hug each other which I found really sweet. Was it difficult to film such intimacy between the two actresses?

AK: It wasn’t difficult because my goal was not to be outside of the action. I really wanted to do a film from an idealistic point of view so I wanted the love scenes to be part of that. And I wanted the audience to watch two girls make love. That was difficult to convey but we talked a lot in preparation and everything I asked for they were very generous in their approach. It was a lot of fun, but I was not so difficult because we discussed so much.

With a distance I see that all the suffering I had at that period of life was necessary to grow up. They were only steps to becoming what I am. I thought I saw too many movies about this similar age that are really dark. I think I wanted to make  the kind of movie I would have liked to see as a teenager.

RB: Did you watch any films in preparation?

AK: I’m very much into Japanese cinema from the sixties. And maybe you have noticed there is one scene in the film which is a homage to one American director, Gus Van Sant. The shower scene is a homage to Paranoid Park.

RB: What are you planning next?

AK: Actually I have two projects and I will try now to have them financed. This was my second film and I had one between the two and it didn’t work, but I will try again. So I have two projects but it’s too early to say which one I will pick up.

 

Image sources: berlinale.de, cinemawithoutborders.com