Mia Wasikowska fills out the screen in Kuba Dorabialski’s “Agata the Writer.” Metaphorically and figuratively, as one especially arresting sequence shows her in close-up looking directly at the audience and recounting the rest of the story. Kuba sent me some references, which I thought were really interesting, and it felt organic. But then, when I was watching the scene, I thought: ‘Ok.
That’s enough of my face’!” Known for blockbusters like “Alice in Wonderland” and high-profiles dramas “Stoker” or “Jane Eyre,” Wasikowska has been pursuing arthouse fare in recent years. I feel like we have tunnel vision about how to tell a story and make a film,” notes Wasikowska. She also executive produced the film.
I’m very proud it was made in a market that’s increasingly myopic about how it’s done.” A Whitefalk Films and Produktion Productions production – sold by French sales company MMM Film Sales – sees Wasikowska as Agata, a Polish-Australian writer who arrives in Sarajevo to write about the war. She wants to speak to the survivors, but they question her motives. Not to mention, weird artworks start to mysteriously disappear from the house where she’s staying.
Dorabialski wanted to combine cinema and literature in the film. Reading is a solitary practice, and we experience cinema collectively,” he states. He was been back and forth about the title pretty much until the premiere in Venice.
I have a lot of affection also for writers too. The essence of everything I’m interested in is this very particular magic of literature. But where it falls short is silence and stillness.
Even a novel that explores silence has to fill that void with language. Cinema has the audience in chains, dictating how long stillness lasts,” he says. There’s a definite beginning and end time; there’s a dark room and a screen.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
