‘Pelican Blood’: An Interview with Katrin Gebbe, Director and Writer
This is not a story of sorcery and witchcraft or even of healing the damaged child adopted by a single mother and her other adopted daughter as much as it is a parable about following your own inner direction as dictated by your heart and soul.
When Wiebke, a horse trainer and adoptive mother to Nicolina, adopts a second daughter, she is faced with a broken soul who menaces her very existence. The film could be The Bad Seed meets Three Faces of Eve, but it is more than that.
When mother and daughter return from Bulgaria with Raya, a cute five-year-old orphan, Wiebke learns that her new daughter suffers from an attachment disorder and cannot build emotional connections to those around her, and further, she begins exhibiting shocking behavior and grows increasingly violent, claiming her actions are motivated by the provocation of a dark spirit.
After a psychologist explains that Raya will have lifelong issues and does not feel empathy, Wiebke, driven to extremes, begins a questionable treatment and becomes more and more obsessed with finding a solution for the horrific dilemma. A mother pushed to logical and rational limits resorts to extreme measures.
When I met director-writer Katrin Gebbe over coffee I started our conversation saying I had not read any reviews in order not to prejudice myself and I had two questions I hoped she would answer in the course of our discussion: how she directed the child and how she got Nina Foss, such a top-rated actress, to star in this, Katrin’s second film after Nothing Bad Can Happen.
Nina Foss has been my favorite German actress since I first saw her in The White Massai in 2005, and then in my favorite German director, Chris Petzold’s Barbara and Phoenix. She also plays Astrid in the powerful and popular TV series Homeland.
This year TIFF is showing two films starring Nina . Both are about mothers. In The Audition, she plays a musician and an extremely disciplined music teacher whose prize student threatens the status of her own son. In Pelican Blood, she is a skilled horse trainer and mother of two adopted children.
Sydney: About adoption and its dangers, this is a subject I learned about from my own mother who worked for 25 years in an adoption agency. At a point in my own life when I was contemplating adopting a child, she discouraged it by telling me so many of the children up for adoption have been traumatized and when they grow up with severe problems, she had seen many parents attempting to return the child to the agency as foster children.
Katrin: The issue of adoption and its dangers are not emphasized in this story although it is true, that there are families who are in this dilemma (also in foster care). That is in fact a taboo. But for me it is important to not condemn adoption in general. That is why there is the first adopted child to show its positive side. When such difficulties arise, usually the mother is left on her own. Men often leave in this sort of stressful situation. The stress on marriage is very powerful. And often the medical establishment as well is at a loss to treat people who do not meet certain standards… Most people tend to give up on others who do not meet certain societal standards or are mentally ill. There is no textbook solution to troubled souls. — The trade reviews say that I “resorted to witchcraft” to solve the problem. But it is an allegory. I am showing how the mother Wiebke had to be extreme and exceed her own mental and physical boundaries. Everyone else gave up and Raya’s extremity called for extreme action. There is a great need for faith to transcend the reality she was presented with.
The story tells of a metaphysical situation calling for us to go beyond where we are now going. So much is unknown. The medical establishment, relatively new itself, does not have all the answers. Trust is crucial in the process of healing. I don’t like the idea of giving up on a child (with a heartbreaking trauma in this particular case).
Sydney: Yes, even in medical practice, that the patient trusts the physician plays a large part in healing.
Katrin: Film is a poetic medium; it should not give answers but ask questions. The end is not the resolution. Emotional understanding cannot be explained by “hard fact reality”. When I was in a crisis, someone gave me the book Women Who Run With the Wolves, somewhat of a modern fairytale which touched without a literal explanation of the power of women. Emotional truth can go deeper than modern medicine and modern psychology.
Experiencing the true horror of a mother with a damaged child creates a kind of unsettling feeling. Wiebke is living through the nightmare version of motherhood. Its depiction makes a sort of cross-genre film veering toward horror — but I didn’t want to make a full on genre horror film. The film needed a realism that would be even more disquieting. And I wanted portray a real child, not the cliché of an “evil child” .
[K12] The horror-elements create an abstract level, so the film can, on a meta level, raise moral, social and political questions and explore deeper meaning. Also the film questions very much the ideal of motherhood.
[K13] Perhaps the end and the real emotion of it connect more to female viewers than males. It seems to provoke some men, like poking a stick into a beehive…
I, for example, connect very much to the character of Wiebke. As a filmmaker, you must also have faith in your project. Even if they speak poorly of your child and might even harm it, the filmmaker has to go on and make the film and stand by its side.
Sydney: Now let’s talk about Nina Hoss.
Katrin: Nina could immediately identify with Wiebke’s hardcore idealism. She herself is like that. Hoss has lots of experience in theater, TV and movies. I sent the script to her agent who was skeptical but one day later, I received the message, that Nina wanted to meet me. Even though I only had one feature film credit, we had an eye level discussion about Wiebke and womanhood. She was excited to work with horses. We shot the film in Bulgaria and she never left, even to take a weekend to go home. She bonded with the children, the crew, and the animals. She showed great patience.
Sydney: How did you direct the children in this story?
Katrin: As for working with the children, making a movie about a traumatized child without traumatizing the child… I wanted a child who had not yet lost, what we call “Kindchenschema” a quality in a child’s face which makes adults want to help a tiny child, or a little baby animal. The child should not be too “school-trained” when many attributes give way to societal norms. There was only one child I found able to play both sides, the Kindchenschema and the angry, menacing being.
The casting director told me that her mother was a theater owner who worked on stage with her daughter and had developed certain working procedures. Simona, the mother, helped Katie (Katerina Lipovska) by building a story map which paralleled our story. Katie did not understand German. Her mother told her she was the star of the film and wanted to become a veterinarian. She, for example, told Katie that she was fighting for her right when — in the real scene — Raya was actually telling Wiebke, that she wants her to be dead.
Simona prepped the two kids (Katerina and Adelia) for one month in a sort of summer camp. Every day was something new and the children drew images of every scene.
I feared the children could get sick or stressed during the shoot, but thanks to this strategies and a couple of cute horses outside the house, they really enjoyed being on set.
My earlier film also had children in it. Based on a true story that concerns good and evil, it was about a 23 year old boy, a Jesus freak, a rootless loner. It is a difficult topic for audiences, but it is poetic too. It is also a sacrifice story as this one. The pelican mother sheds its own blood to feed her children in times of famine.
Sydney: What drives you as a filmmaker?
Katrin: I like to explore. We judge people so quickly. I want insight and I like to see the angles between people as they are caught in the choices they must make. I like outsiders who seek transcendence, who deal with their brains vs. their hearts. They say not to judge a person until you have walked in their shoes. There are lots of situations when you react instinctively. In cinema, you can put people into unusual situations and can explore the characters’ reactions.
Sydney: You seem to like the instinctive side of characters.
Katrin: Follow your instincts in extreme situations and in the artistic process. You cannot use “thought”. Fine art opens new universes emotionally for me.
Sydney: I just saw Roy Andersson’s About Endlessness. He says it referenced the paintings of Otto Dix. Though I did not see the Otto Dix I know in this film. Was there an artist which inspired Pelican Blood?
Katrin: Yes, Berlinde de Bruyckere has an emotional resonance with the film. When I could not get tickets to see The Joker when my film showed in Venice I went to the Venice Biennale which was so inspiring. So much great art in one place. Art inspires me in a broad way beyond the story. So does music.
Sydney: What are you working on now?
Katrin: I am now working with a horror screenwriter from Spain and a Swedish producer on an “elevated genre” film and also on a miniseries…we’ll see what comes out of it all.
Sydney: Thank you for your time and sharing your ideas.
Pelican’s Blood/ Pelikanblut: World Premiere at Venice FF, North American Premiere in Toronto. From Germany and Bulgaria. 2019. German, 127 minutes
Director and Writer: Katrin Gebbe
Cast: Nina Hoss, Katerina Lipovska, Adelia-Constance Giovanni Ocleppo, Murathan Muslu
Cinematography: Moritz Schultheiß
Editing: Heike Gnida
Producer: Verena Gräfe-Höft
Production Companies: Junafilm, Miramar film
Production Designers: Silke Fischer, Anna Boyanova
Sound: Thekla Demelius
Original Score: Johanne Lehniger
International Sales Agent: Films Boutique
Publicist: K2 Publicity
