Sunday, April 8

A Scandinavian tale

Jonas Matzow Gulbrandsen’s debut feature Valley of Shadows was screened within the “Young Masters” section of the festival programme. Gulbrandsen said: “I knew that I needed a composer who would create the texture, the colors, the perception the philosophy of my film with music. I saw that Zbigniew Preisner with the later films of Kieslowski elevated the films with his music unimaginably, and although overlooked maybe today, Preisner is one of the few composers who really makes music for films. I did not use music in my previous shorts, none at all. But when I wrote this film, I knew that this film would require music, even overwhelm the film itself.” About the child actor: “It is impossible to direct children actually. But we auditioned hundreds of children for the part. When I first saw his eyes and his face, because his eyes and face needed to tell a lot, I knew it had to be him. He was very intuitive and I was very lucky.”

Fotoğraf: Benek Özmez