You really had a huge success at festivals and have won awards. That surprised you?
BN: Frankly not (laughs). The film has nine awards from about 36 festivals where it was presented so far. When I completed it I was very pleased. It has many technical limitations and with a little more time and money, it would've become the movie I've set out to do, but we had many problems arising from the low-budget nature of our production. Still, from a narrative and aesthetic point of view, I was quite satisfied with the result so I was optimistic, that's also in my nature. It was hard work though: I worked it until the very end. I wrote it one day, filmed it in a day and a half and then it took me literally a year and a half to complete it.
Edit and add music?
BN: Yes, plus additional dialogue, special effects and color correction. It took me a long time, but it means I had time to mature my relationship with the film. I am still very critical of the film, its many technical limitations, but I thought it was an achievement, specially considering the circumstances we had. I was optimistic and that only got confirmed when the film was selected for the London Film Festival, then screened to a room packed with a thousand people. It went down really well and I thought: it's coming through. Then, festival jurors may like it more or less.... it is a very simple movie, somehow classic, has no major innovations, or rather could have been shot ten or twenty years ago. It is a simple story told in a linear fashion. There are festivals that are not interested in it, and want more political hot topics or bolder aesthetic proposals and I can understand that. Anyway, after the first screening, the film got invited to some important festivals in the U.S. and that was like stepping on a trampoline. When we got selected for the festival in Tokyo, I was really happy to feel the range was broader than I thought, reaching out to a non-anglophone market.
It would have been possible to do this film in Portugal?
BN: I think so, I'm sure. In London, there is this drive, this energy, there's a lot of people doing new and good things, and thos atmosphere is very motivating. This is the main difference between here and London. At the en of the day, I just hope I can do more movies, here, in China or wherever there is funding.
Let's now talk about your other experience, your work with two great Portuguese directors, José Fonseca e Costa and Manoel de Oliveira. What is the most striking difference in terms of method between the two?
BN: Apart from obvious style and message differences, the big difference between Fonseca e Costa and Oliveira is probably that the former focuses much more on working with the actors than the latter. This does not mean one is better than the other, just that they're different, that's all. It is also true that when I worked for them, I was on a very early stage of my career and I had a lot to learn. My academic background was not Film but History, so I had plenty to learn from both, even if now my goals as a director do not necessarily reflect what I learned from them.
What were the films you participated with Fonseca e Costa and Oliveira respectively?
BN: José Fonseca e Costa's "O Fascínio" was an adaptation of a Brazilian novel by Tabajara Ruas and Oliveira's "V Empire is a film about Dom Sebastião. I learned a lot carefully observing their technique. The truth is they have very different styles and I cannot, nor ever will be able to say how they influenced my way of making movies. I talked a lot with Manuel about "time and motion" in Film and I guess I only move the camera to a new angle if I have a very strong reason. This might change but as for now, I do not like excessive coverage but I guess that depends on what you're doing and what I want to do now has a relatively slow timing and my shots are not "that" dynamic. My shots have to enhance what my character is doing... I also feel the need to have great control over the film, and from the moment you do a new angle just because it looks good, you're setting a very dangerous precedent. I like "spartan" films, with little or no fat, lean, with the bare essential. I'd like to make movies with such simplicity.
What are your film references?
BN: Many. If I must say a few then Malik, Bergman, Kurosawa, Wilder, all of which are filmmakers for whom I have an utter respect, but there is no way I could pick one or two.
We discussed this project but I know you have others in progress.
BN: This project has opened many doors for me, allowing me to develop a script for a feature film and I also got an invitation to make a short film in Madeira. All going well, I'll come to shoot here next year, while the feature is in preparation.
What is the theme this time that you will address?
BN: I cannot tell you or I would have to kill you, which would stop this interview from being published. (laughs). I can anticipate that, again, there is "the sea" and that it won't be focused on the current social fabric of the island - I'm not interested in that- but it will use the drama of our landscape. The feature film is set on a coastal town with a golf course in Scotland, a setting which is not that different from Madeira, and it's a "coming of age" drama: a group of 4 teenagers last week of summer before starting University or work. It is an original script by a Scottish writer, Adam Dewar, with whom I am now working.
