Justine Bauer • Director of Smell of Burnt Milk
“There was a lot of prejudice, especially among younger actors, when it came to playing the role of a peasant”
by Teresa Vena
- We talked to the German helmer about her vision, her work with her actors and the biggest challenges she encountered during the production of her directorial debut
After its world premiere at Filmfest Munich, where it won the Award for Best Production (see the news), the directorial debut by Justine Bauer is travelling around different festivals, and will be released in cinemas in spring next year by the director herself and the University of Arts in Hamburg. Smell of Burnt Milk [+see also:
interview: Justine Bauer
film profile] is the director's graduation film from said university. We talked to her about her vision, her work with her actors and the biggest challenges she encountered during production.
Cineuropa: At one point, one of the protagonists says that people from the city have the wrong ideas about people from the countryside. Was this the leitmotif for your film?
Justine Bauer: I think there is a sizeable distance between the countryside and the city, and there is a lack of understanding on both sides about the way of life in either place. The countryside is not portrayed very positively in the movies. Very rarely do you see women farmers as protagonists. This film is therefore an attempt to portray women in the countryside realistically, to show them sympathetically, not as stupid people. I wanted to show modern women farmers.
How much of your own experience went into the film?
Of course, I know the characters I show in the film. I know women who have not inherited the family farm, even though they have a strong connection to the land. They are women who like the land and who appreciate hard work. I grew up on a farm myself. Both of my grandmothers and my mother are also farmers. I experienced the rituals and situations I describe in the film myself, or they happened in the neighbourhood. One example is the scene in which the family find their father hanging from a tree, but they still finish mowing the field first.
Could you tell us how you went about casting the roles?
I initially considered whether I wanted to work with professional actresses or not, but then I realised that there was a lot of prejudice, especially among younger actors, when it came to playing the role of a peasant. As it was important to me that we shoot in the local dialect that I grew up around, I put out a call for actors and actresses in the local newspaper. A total of 40 young women got in touch, and we cast them online first. Among them was Karolin Nothacker, who plays the lead. Through her, her brother and sisters also joined the cast. I used the familiarity they have with each other for the film and adapted the script to suit them. They know life in the countryside and come from the region. They know how to handle tractors and cows, even if they are all doing something else now. Moreover, I know Johanna Wokalek, who plays the role of the mother, from the theatre. I was glad that she agreed to take part, especially because we had no money.
Can you tell us a bit more about the production conditions?
We had a very modest budget. This is my graduation film. The University of Arts in Hamburg hasn't collaborated with TV stations or major funding institutions for a few years now, which is why we received our graduation film funding from the NRW Film Foundation. That was €20,000, plus there was a contribution from the school itself, as well as from me and from the cameraman, Pedro Carnicer. In total, we got around €30,000. It only worked out because everyone, including my family, worked for free. Of course, these are not conditions that I would wish on anyone or that I would like to have to endure again. But I'm still very happy and proud that we were able to make this film.
Did you work from a fixed script, or was there also room for improvisation?
We are often asked whether there was a script at all. There was, but there was still room for improvisation when it came to the movements, and also when adapting the dialogue from High German to the dialect. Then there were situations that we couldn't plan beforehand, such as when the girls laughed or when one of the characters fell off the ox. Apart from that, we had to adapt the script to the experience of the cast.
The film's soundtrack is fantastic, and it merges smoothly with the images. How was it created?
It comes from Canadian indigenous artist Cris Derksen. I had heard her album and immediately thought that her music would interact well with the images in the film. Fortunately, she gave her permission for us to use her music.
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