Sleep With Your Eyes Open directed by German filmmaker Nele Wohlatz made its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival’s Encounters section on Saturday. The film explores the topic of belonging within a foreign country. In an interview with Variety, Wohlatz goes in-depth on the filmmaking process and the themes found in the film.
Wohlatz spoke on how her own experience as an immigrant to Argentina influenced the film, saying, “Ten years is the time where you kind of lose the sense of belonging to your original country, but also start to find out that in that new society, you’re never really going to be a natural, organic, or indivisible part of everything…this question of belonging or this losing a sense of belonging, can have many different reasons, and is not only connected to migration but can also happen in any adults’ lives through other curves that life takes.”
The film’s cast was comprised of both professional and non-professional actors; the Chinese actors had a Confucian approach to life which was appealing to Wohlatz, she stated, “There’s a lot of dialogue, and they are quite expressive about their concerns, but there’s always the option of leaving things unsaid or having quite a stony face. Whatever happens, the face doesn’t change a lot and doesn’t get too hysterical or reactive.”
Wohlatz also discussed how the film’s cinematography (done by Roman Kasseroller) and production design reinforced certain themes in the film such as isolation vs. togetherness, saying, “We tried to compose a lot of shots with openings or windows, where you have characters often in front of a window, and then the city is outside, and that marks a separation between the bodies and the rest of the world. Like this togetherness, but which is always also an isolation or separation.”
A feeling of threat was also created in the film, keeping the characters in a state of unease. It should also be noted that documentary filmmaking is Wohlatz’s background, so the film creates a hybrid between fiction and documentary. On this point, she said, “I work a lot with the elements that I find during the research or during the shoot…I also needed to maintain some tension because the film is not driven by action and consequences so much…I really wanted to go against the classical narrative structure of the hero’s journey…But we have other stories to tell. So, I decided on this risky structure.”
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