Incapacity to Communicate

 

Twenty years after the death of her mother, Chantal Milles returns home, to her brothers and sisters who had long remained silent about that event, pretending as it had never happened. They can’t remain silent anymore… She translated this story into a film, with the help of her colleague Daniel Howald.

Why did you wait so long to tell this story?

Milles: I began to think about this when my father died. It was a spontaneous idea, because I haven’t’ thought that much about this event. I didn’t clearly see what will be the outcome of that idea or what I had to do. Only when we started working on the film, the theme surfaced before us, and that’s the incapacity to communicate.

Howald: We understood that there will be not much privacy in this film. For Chantal, it is not a psychoanalysis story and we have tried to make it in the way that the audience will understand it. We have even used irony in certain segments, although this is essentially a dark subject.

How did the audience accept the film?

Howald: The film was shown at a festival in Switzerland several days ago. It was its premiere. We have finished it in January and the screening on the Belgrade Festival of Documentary and Short Film is its East European premiere. We have for now had only one screening in front of a limited number of people and it was interesting because some people started laughing. Others were serious.

Milles: I think the audience may be divided in two groups. The first includes those who will like the subject, maybe because they have experienced something similar in their families. The others are those who are simply interested in art and this interest will make them go see our film.

How did you get interested in filmmaking, since you have studied philosophy and philology?

Milles: I started working on festivals and became the director of a women’s festival. There I had the opportunity to see many documentaries I liked. After a while, I wanted to make my own movie.

Do you have ideas about future projects?

Milles: I am currently researching the phenomenon of Sex Trafficking and Women abuse. In Switzerland, where we are living, it has become a major problem. The victims are women from Eastern Europe and we want to make a film on that issue.