2024-08-17 09:33:39
Adam Martinec moved from Krnov years ago. Now, in his native region, he decided to shoot the film Mord, which has just entered cinemas. The central motif is a killer, during which complex family relationships come to the surface. According to the director, tradition is dying. “Unlike other events where you talk and drink, the killer unites everyone with a common goal,” he says in an interview for Aktuálně.cz.
Do you like female assassins?
I have, although there are fewer and fewer opportunities to get to them. Even so, I attend at least one a year. But I visited several of them because of the research for the movie Mord. However, for various reasons, they are disappearing in my family and wider environment. But I remember the killers fondly. Despite other family gatherings where there is eating and drinking in addition to talking, the slayers are promoted by a common task, and as a result, everyone in attendance bonds.
When I saw Mord recently, I wondered if the film criticized the tradition of female assassins, or rather celebrated it. But apparently both can be found in it.
Both ideally. It’s a tradition, and like any other, the slayer has a purpose. In the past, it had a purely practical meaning, which it no longer has, but it still retains its ritual character. It is a day that many people may find barbaric, machismo, unfashionable and outdated. I understand that, and I don’t think Mord is being uncritical of these views.
How do you feel about traditions in general?
I’m rather conservative in this regard. I like traditions, I think they play an important role in society. But it does not mean that they should all be followed at all costs and that the world we live in is not evolving. It will be difficult to find a balance between what we should let go, what we should update and what we should cling to just because some moments simply define the company.
Do you have anything specific in mind besides killers?
Let’s take the example of a wedding. I recently got married in a church – traditionally. But I don’t understand why people of the same sex can’t get married. That’s the thing that I think is worth updating, and I don’t know why anyone would mind.
Good everywhere, better in Krnov
For the readers, I will state that the plot of the film takes place in one slaughterhouse, specifically in Osoblažsk in the Moravian-Silesian region, where you are from. However, the killer herself appears here only as a pretext for depicting complex family relationships.
Exactly. First of all, it’s about interpersonal relationships, then it’s about a pimp.
“My own imperfections, however, helped me to write weaker characters in Mord,” explains director Adam Martinec. | Photo: CinemArt
Years later, you go to your native Krnov as if you were in a foreign country, you moved away a long time ago. The Osoblažsky promontory is right next door, why did you move the plot of the film there?
It was much closer to me to organize a slaughterhouse at home than in the Central Bohemia region. That is the author’s decision. But when you want to shoot with non-actors who go to work, practical reasons also come into play. You have to get much closer to them than actors who are used to commuting between cities.
I expected it was for nostalgia reasons.
Not necessarily. I like the region, but I think that it is shaped by the people. And I came back for those. Originally, I couldn’t even imagine that I would live in Prague, until it finally became inevitably necessary. I’m used to it now. But I still have the feeling that, in terms of quality, leaving Prague will make things worse rather than better.
Really?
Yes, it seems to me that in Krnov, although it doesn’t do well on the general rankings, everything is close by, people have time for each other there, services are diametrically cheaper there. And even though people don’t earn as much money as in Prague, I don’t think that as a young person here in the capital I earn huge amounts to be able to buy a house here, just like my peers in Krnov do.
A good half of the characters in the film are played by non-actors, one of the main ones is even your father…
My father already has experience with filming, and he also enjoyed it, so he had a place in Mord from the beginning. But the fact that I entrusted him with the main role was given by the recommendation of the director Bohdan Sláma, who saw the camera tests and convinced me to cast my father in the lead of the film. But it was difficult for me, because you see your father as a director in a completely different way than as a viewer, and you are biased towards him. It was a risk from the position of the son and the producer, to entrust the main role to a complete non-actor. But maybe it paid off.
But you and your father have caused a lot of pain in the past. Did Mord help both of you heal some wounds?
No, I don’t think so. After all, this is why Mord wasn’t even created. Old grievances have long since been ironed out… at least I think so, I can’t speak for dad. I was rather happy to give him the lead role as a 60th birthday present.
How do you actually correct filming with actors and non-actors at the same time?
On the one hand, there is a cloud of complexity around this question than it really is. On the other hand, it is true that it requires high professional intelligence from the actors. But in the end, everyone did a great job in understanding their role.
Do you mean to match the authenticity of the non-actors?
Definitely. Also their unpredictability, the pace of the scenes and the overall course of filming, because of course I worked with non-actors differently than with regular actors. We adapted the filming to squeeze something unexpected out of the actors.
Speaking of the family, during the film I asked myself the question, to what extent do the characters’ characters represent reality? In Mord there is a strictly divided male and female collective and the related stereotypes.
That is for everyone to judge, I tried to be faithful in what I observe around me, I did not choose a caricature. I didn’t even want to change the stereotypes for the sake of the film, it was about filming the truest possible picture of the people who live in our country.
But how do you perceive the male ego that appears in the film?
With ambivalence, I like strong guys as well as fragile ones. Logically, I am closer to the male world than the female world, so I am more confident when writing male characters. But it’s not because I find men more important than women. It makes my hair stand on end when we polarize these two worlds these days. More important than the gender issue for me was the motif that as humans we pass on patterns of behavior from parents to children.
I am a combination of negative characters
And which of the characters did you look up to the most?
I am definitely a combination of all negative characters. That means Karel, Aleš and the evil neighbor.
You are quite self-critical.
I am aware of all the dark sides of my character. Those that are present in my behavior on a daily basis, as well as occasional ones. But I try to work on them. However, my own imperfections helped me write the weaker characters in Mordo.
When the question arises, why are you doing this? Does it have a therapeutic effect, visualizing the negative in front of yourself?
It has no therapeutic effect. Rather, I portrayed something that people like me would see themselves in. At the same time, this creates an image of behavior towards which Mord has a relatively clear position – he does not defend it, on the contrary, he openly criticizes the depicted actions of the characters towards each other. My wish is that we treat each other better than before. Like any other society, we have certain pathologies – they are also shown in the film – and I would like it not to be like that one day.
To quote you again, were you afraid that someone would interpret the film through a female question or some kind of machismo perspective?
I’m not afraid of someone doing it, but rather the result. If someone is interested in this optics, they can give me a tailcoat. And so be it, let someone use such a view, but only for that film. The picture does not represent my person, but some reality. So I wouldn’t like to read about myself as a machismo fool. Although the film is in the hands of the audience. And it is purely up to their interpretation, how to perceive it, what to see and not to see.
Trailer for the film Mord (2024):
The film Mord has been showing in Czech cinemas since last Thursday. | Video: CinemArt