The spooky aura behind one of the 6th Femme Filmmakers Festival’s showcase selection short films has had people talking the last few days. Director Hana Kazim is the woman behind Makr, an acclaimed little horror story. And now Kazim speaks to us at Filmotomy about Makr and her love for film.
Robin Write: What do you remember from your childhood about a love for film?
Hana Kazim: We lived on top of a video rental store. I remember going every weekend to pick out a film. Grew up watching all the 90s classics.
RW: When did you know you wanted to make films? Which films inspired you growing up?
HK: The film that made me love watching movies I’d say was Jurassic Park, but the film that made me aware I wanted to make them was The Godfather. Cut to four years later and Francis Ford was sitting at my graduation.
RW: What is the concept behind Makr? How much is personal and how much did you have to research?
HK: There was a journey to get to it. I think with everything going on in the region at the time, I felt very strongly about how faith was being misrepresented. I wanted to somehow communicate that not everything cloaked in white is necessarily “good” and vice versa.
So, I found that this particular setup, which is a common occurrence in some parts of the region, was the perfect small-scale version of that.
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RW: How did you cast the film? And how do you direct performers in such eerie circumstances?
HK: I’ve been working as an Exec in the region for a couple of years now, and met most of the actors on other sets. So I had them in mind. Actors are some of the best storytellers you have on set, and if you find the right ones they can add dimensions to the character you didn’t even think of.
RW: The film is a bit reminiscent of The Twilight Zone – especially in the third act. Did this or any classic/modern horror or thriller films inspire MAKR at all?
HK: I was definitely inspired by The Exorcist and The Twilight Zone. I read something somewhere, I think it was Aronofsky, who said that the most effective short films are the ones that are told like a joke. You set it up, and then you pay it off. The Twilight Zone style structure allowed me to do that and keep it interesting.
RW: Watching this Islamic story of possession makes for a unique and refreshing watch, for the majority of possession & horror films are through a Catholic lens. What do want an audience to take away from the film, being as it may be their first horror film in Arabic?
HK: At the end of the day, we are all the same. Somehow we are nurtured to look at each other’s differences, rather than similarities. That’s why storytelling is so exportable – when you boil it down, it all comes from the same base.
RW: The music impacts the film and overall tone greatly. The music and the ticking clock makes for some extremely anxiety inducing buildup to quite the ambiguous ending and final shot. Did you purposefully leave this up to audience interpretation or is there a solid explanation for that eerie end?
HK: I’ve been wanting to work with Ali Helnwein (the composer) for a while. I had been following his work, and thought this film would be a great opportunity to do so.Well – if you listen closely at the end, you hear the sound of the bell. It’s the same ring you hear when he enters the home. Not everyone picked up on it, and they weren’t meant to. In my mind, the film is repeating itself in an infinite loop.
We have an Islamic interpretation for it, which is much more meaningful because it visualizes a specific verse about the consequences of using faith for personal gain. However, my universal message would be that he’s in a sort of purgatory.
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RW: What difficulties did you overcome during the shooting process? Did you learn anything new in this time?
HK: The lack of time. We had just under three days for this. I always forget how fast time runs until I’m on set trying to get a shot. I mitigated it this time by coming in early every day and revising my shot list before we started. It worked.
RW: How do you feel about being segregated as a woman filmmaker? How important is that distinction to you?
HK: I like to think I’m a storyteller first. We all have different voices based on who we are and where we are from. The diversity of voices is an important one, because it creates a wider capacity for more audiences to relate and more stories to be told.
RW: What is next for you? And what project would you love to tackle in the future?
HK: I’m currently writing a couple of things, hoping to move into directing a feature. Definitely another horror, they are so much fun to work on.
RW: Have you been following the Femme Filmmakers Festival?
HK: Yes, I’ve been keeping tabs on Twitter. Humbled to be in the mix with some kickass filmmakers.
