Kim Nguyen takes the long view on romance
Nguyen finds romance in surveillance with Eye on Juliet, a utopian and ironic tale
Kim Nguyen arrived at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on a high Sunday. The Montreal filmmaker’s latest feature, Eye on Juliet, had just been awarded the FEDEORA (Federation of Film Critics of Europe and the Mediterranean) prize for best film at Venice Days, a sidebar of the Venice Film Festival.
“I was especially happy and relieved,” Nguyen said Tuesday afternoon, as he prepared for the movie’s North American première that evening. “This is a different kind of film. I’m aware of it. I didn’t know how it would be received. We didn’t test it on audiences. I’m happy to get this award, especially from the critics’ circle.”
Eye on Juliet tells the story of the unlikely relationship between Gordon (Joe Cole), an American drone operator tasked with surveying a pipeline in the Middle East from a compound in the U.S., and Ayusha (Lina El Arabi), a young woman who ends up in the line of sight of the heptapod (a spider-like drone) he uses to complete his task.
At first, Gordon is merely intrigued by Ayusha’s secretive romance with the man she loves, but he feels compelled to intervene upon learning the woman is being forced by her family to marry an older man she has no feelings for.
“I really liked the idea of an intimate story told with two characters, thousands of miles apart,” Nguyen said, “where the geopolitical aspects of the film form a tapestry — they’re in the background, and the film is really about the isolation of these two characters.”
Nguyen is no stranger to farout narratives. His 2012 drama Rebelle (War Witch) followed a female child soldier on a journey of violence, love and redemption. That film launched him into the big leagues, as he became the third Quebec director in three years (after Denis Villeneuve and Philippe Falardeau) to receive an Oscar nomination for best foreign-language film.
His 2016 followup Two Lovers and a Bear was about, well, just that. Set in the Canadian Arctic, the film marked Nguyen’s English-language debut, with Tatiana Maslany and Dane DeHaan in the lead roles.
With Eye on Juliet, Nguyen again finds himself exploring romance in extreme surroundings. His characters speak different languages and don’t interact face to face for most of the film. But though the premise of the heptapod as a go-between created logistical and narrative challenges, he hopes viewers will go along for the ride.
“It’s really an ironic, utopian tale about how humans in the 21st century connect with each other, with all this technology between them,” he said. “Obviously, this film is not realistic. It has a utopian ending.”
And yet, what could have been a hindrance may end up being Nguyen’s biggest asset. The Venice Days jury singled out his film “for the inspired way in which technology becomes a tool for bringing people together by means of compassion and dignity.”
For Nguyen, who calls himself a romantic at heart, the narrative contrivances became a way to deconstruct human behaviour.
“Gordon is a romantic hero who doesn’t find his place in our more pragmatic world of screens,” the filmmaker said. “I think that young adults, especially young men, have less and less opportunity to be physical in expressing who they are. Gordon wants to be a hero and he can’t, but he tries to find a way.”
As the title suggests, Eye on Juliet offers a wry reference to the classic tale of lovers who are worlds apart. Nguyen borrows from the Bard only in passing, he insists, and with tongue firmly in cheek.
Juliet is the random name Gordon gives to the anonymous woman who appears on his screen, and in whose fate he is becoming increasingly invested.
“It’s a very distant homage to Shakespeare,” Nguyen said. “It’s definitely ironic. I love the idea that (Gordon) types in Juliet, but it’s already used, so he goes to Juliet3000. The funny thing is that I initially named her Juliet2000, but then a colleague told me, ‘You know, Kim, if you name her Juliet2000, it reveals your age; we’re now into 3000.’ So with special effects we changed it to 3000.”
Perhaps it’s Nguyen’s old-school — or old-soul — side that made him want to go beyond the numbers and screens in order to get at something more personal. Once again, he finds himself using plot as a pathway to other places.
“This film was written very instinctively,” he said. “It’s something I needed to discover. When you have surreal elements in a film, you can’t explain everything. There’s definitely a theme of the growing isolation in society, and our yearning to try and get closer.
“Through that, there’s our lovehate relationship with technology, which is not going to go away. We’re trying to make sense of it, and find a way to be more human in spite of it.”