“You have to make yourself vulnerable to love”
Rencontre avec le réalisateur de Seule la Terre.
Au cinéma le 6 décembre, Seule la terre raconte l’histoire d’amour de deux hommes dans une ferme du Yorkshire. Un film brut, cru et d’une grande sensibilité, qui plonge le spectateur dans la beauté d’une rencontre et la solitude du monde rural. Interviewé par Vocable, le réalisateur britannique Francis Lee nous parle de son premier long-métrage et du très bel accueil critique qu’il a reçu.
Vocable: What was the inspiration for God’s Own Country? Francis: I grew up on the Pennines in West Yorkshire, where the film is set, and my dad is still a sheep farmer there. When I was growing up there, on one hand I felt it to be incredibly freeing, creative and expansive and emotive, and on the other hand, I felt it to be very isolating and brutal, so I wanted to explore my relationship with the landscape. At the same time, I was figuring out that whole thing of falling in love and how you have to make yourself vulnerable to love and be loved. And it was very important that it was between two men, because I wanted to look at masculinity and how men communicate… or don’t communicate.
2. Vocable: The film is about a love story, but at the same time it’s dark, brutal and raw. Why? Francis: Because I see that as the truth of the world. Emotions can be tough things to deal with and can be raw and brutal, but I also hope that I show tenderness and the development of intimacy, and the development of care.
3. Vocable: How did you choose the two main actors? Francis: I worked with a casting director in London and a casting director in Bucharest, in Romania. Josh O’Connor who plays Johnny recorded a couple of scenes for me. I felt that he was really understanding of the internal life of the character. And when I met him in London, I was shocked, because Josh is the total antithesis of Johnny: he’s a lovely, smiley, open, funny, generous, emotionally-open boy from the South of England. I realised very quickly he’s one of those rare actors who’s incredibly good at completely changing himself, and that totally excited me because that was the way I wanted to work. And Alec Secareanu who plays Gheorghe, totally jumped out from the screen, because on paper Gheorghe seems a very straightforward character, but actually he’s very difficult to play. He’s got this internal, maternal kind of emotional life; he wants to care, but he isn’t a pushover…
4. Vocable: Farmers are not often portrayed in films. What did you want to show from this world? Francis: What I explore is this idea of being close to livestock and landscape and the cycle of life that you see every day. You know, birth, life, death… One of the reasons I made this film was because I hadn’t seen this world depicted in the way in which I understood it before. So I just wanted to kind of just show this world through my eyes.
5. Vocable: The story is set during lambing season, when sheep are giving birth to lambs. How did you film these scenes? Francis: Because I love truthful and authentic film-making, I knew I could never have a stunt double, that the actors would actually have to do all the work with the animals, including birthing the lambs. So in order to prepare for that, I sent them to work on farms for weeks and weeks with farmers, and they both did long shifts, starting at like 6am and finishing at 6pm. The farming had to look like it was second nature to them, that they’d been doing it all their lives, and they were brilliant at doing that.
6. Vocable: In the film, Gheorghe is a migrant worker. Is it something that happens often on farms? Francis: Yes, he’s moved to the UK for a better opportunity to earn more money than he would earn in Romania, and to change his life, like lots and lots of people do. And yes, it is quite common for people from other countries to come and work in agriculture in this country, more so on arable farms, so vegetable or fruit farms.
7. Vocable: Why is the film called God’s Own Country in English? Francis: In Yorkshire, where the film is set, proud Yorkshire people call Yorkshire, “God’s Own Country”. But I discovered lots of other places all over the world also call their region “God’s Own Country”: Kerala in India, New Zealand and the United States, weirdly! But I also really liked it for the double meaning, you know; for me it also kind of means that heaven or heaven on earth, can be where you create it.
8. Vocable: The film has been widely acclaimed by critics and won many awards (Sundance, Edinburgh, Dinard...). Was it a surprise for you? Francis: Yes, because, you know, nobody asked me to write this film. I wrote it because I had the need to write this story, and I didn’t know what was going to happen to it. When I was making it, all I did was just work moment to moment; really concentrating on getting it as truthful and as authentic as possible. So when the film started its life at Sundance and the reviews started to come out and they were all incredible, and then the film sold all over the world and started to win awards everywhere, it was a big surprise.
9. Vocable: It’s your first feature film. What did you draw from this experience? Francis: I guess, I drew from this experience that I was capable of making a feature film, and that inspired me to make another one. So I’m currently working on my next one, which I can’t tell you too much about, apart from it’s set in the UK and it’s going to be a period film, set in the 19th century.