GAYLETTER

We chatted with the director of ‘Floating Skyscrapers,‘ a new film that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. The polish director breaks down the film, talks about his fear of being alone and his future plans.

Do you live in Poland? Where did you grow up? I live in Warsaw. I have been living in Poland all my life, but I grew up in a smaller city in the center of Poland, for 17 years. My family moved to Warsaw when I was in high school, and I’ve been living there since.

What was your inspiration to create this film, Floating Skyscrapers? Well actually I had two stories, and at the beginning I thought that the movie was going to be about a mother and a daughter. Then, when I was developing the story I decided that I wanted to make a movie about two guys, because it’s a subject that is not very common in Polish cinema. I wanted to make something new for Polish viewers.

Why was it important to create a film like this in Poland? As a filmmaker I try to look for a subject that’s interesting for me. You saw my movie right? It focuses on human character, the person is the most important, which is the same as my first movie.

Do you have a close connection to the characters? How did you decide on the storyline? Everything is made up, I write a lot, I am a screenwriter and I write everyday. I’ve been writing this script for 5 years, and it changed and changed, the first draft was completely different.

‘Floating Skyscrapers’ addresses the theme of loneliness in our world today, could you explain how it does that? This is a common experience of our times, that people are very lonely. This is something that, in my stories, even though people have someone, in some part they are lonely inside. I make these kind of characters because I am afraid of loneliness, when I think about fears, the loneliness is what I am afraid of.

Is loneliness your biggest fear? I think so, yes.

Is this film an accurate reflection of Poland? ‘Floating Skyscrapers’ shows Poland today. For the gay community in Poland, and the post communist countries, I think are at a time, regarding sexuality, where the USA was in the 80’s or beginning of 90’s.

Do you think they have made some progress? Of course, I think each year it is changing. I think it’s still a big process for things to turn around in this region. That’s why I wanted to make a movie about a gay love story, because it’s a subject that’s interesting for me as a filmmaker as well as very complex in Poland. I think its also very interesting for people to see, and the emotions were the most important thing for us, when we talked about the relationship between the characters, the emotions were the most important for us, and this makes the movie more truthful.

My movie is going to be shown in different countries as well, but of course when I make a movie I always think about Poland. Polish people are not that used to seeing homosexual couples, whether lesbian or gay couples, so probably at some point it’s going to be uncomfortable for viewers. It was very important for me to make those characters as real as they could be as human beings and because of that I hope that even people that don’t accept this kind of relationship will look at them as human beings, and maybe they will find something in them, maybe begin to understand them.

‘Floating Skyscrapers.’

How was your casting process, how did the guys come into the film? I found the two guys the last day. I had two or three weeks of casting but I wasn’t satisfied with the actors that I was seeing, I didn’t see the characters in them. They were very talented but they had this barrier about being with a man, and I knew that I wanted to make an intimate movie, so I chose an intimate scene for the audition, when Kuba (Mateusz Banasiuk) and Mikal (Bartosz Gelner) came they began to play, and became the characters. They didn’t fear to cross that line.

It must be pretty exciting to be a part of the TriBeCa Film Festival, how did that happen? My sales agent: Films Boutique from Germany showed the movie to different selectioners from different festivals and T.F.F was interested, they liked the movie, and then we were invited. I’m very excited because in the history of Tribeca, my movie is only the third from Poland.

I think a lot of people will like it, it’s a very strong film…

How did you fund the movie? We got private money, my producers arranged the money. It’s still a low budget movie, and it was difficult to find the budget for this kind of, you know, a gay story. Some companies didn’t want to get involved with this topic. Maybe they were afraid of…what’s the name?…

Homophobia? Yeah, I think my producers were brave enough to do it. And it wasn’t easy to raise this money, it was a very long process.

Are you planning to stay in Poland? I think so, I want to make movies abroad, but Poland is my home.

When you walk around in Poland now, do you feel homophobia? I don’t really know… The gay subject is very out in the open nowadays, many people are talking about it, and I hope that it’s going to change and it’s going to go further, and I hope my movie will be part of this.

Do you consider yourself an activist? I have never thought of myself as an activist. I know my movie is some kind of a statement, a statement for showing people that it’s okay, these are two people in love, and this is very important for me. I didn’t want to use my film though as a political statement. When I make movies the most important thing for me are the emotions, and this is what I try to evoke. In the movie, society is just a background. It’s strong of course, but the relationship was the most important thing and the most interesting thing to me, not the politics and fighting for rights. I want to make movies, even though my movie is going to show that these kind of people are present everywhere, and we are all equal.

What was your favorite scene in the movie? I have a couple of them. I really like the sex scene between Kuba and Sylwie (Marta Nieradkiewicz), it was very important because it wasn’t about the sex. It’s about a total conversation about their relationship and their emotions. I love the swimming pool, I like the whole movie.

The scene where he was going down on her… It was brilliant, that scene stood out to me the most, I said to a friend, this is the first time I’ve seen eating pussy, as something so powerful.

What’s your idea of a dream film career? To make movies with actors that I want to, with producers that I want to, in different countries.

Are you planning to make films only with gay characters? Totally not. I want to make movies about people and for people, I don’t want to close myself in on any subject.