You can also listen to the interview in the audio version.
The film Mord is the feature debut for thirty-four-year-old Adam Martinec and at the same time the graduation film at FAMU. He filmed it in Osoblažska, where he himself grew up, and cast his father in the main role. In it, he also touches on difficult topics with ease, such as male vulnerability or the fear of loneliness. After being shown in the main competition at the festival in Karlovy Vary, the film went to Czech cinemas at the beginning of August.
The setting of the film Mord is a rural killer. Do you have any formative childhood memories of her?
I have, I used them in the script as well. I remember one morning I went to feed the pig and my mother tried to shoo me away. She knew there was going to be a killing spree, so she didn’t want us to give the chunic a name to create a relationship with him. But I didn’t understand what it was about at all. I just saw the look of terror in his eyes and it scared the hell out of me. I was still young at the time, in preschool age.
In the film, the female killer is a kind of hardening moment for the little boy. While Dad wants him to watch the slaughter, Mom would rather keep him away from the spectacle.
Yes, I myself have been protected from such boyish matters quite often. My parents and I lived in the city, while our grandparents were still from the village. Ever since I was a child, I felt that my grandfather saw this in me and that he was a little sorry for me. But then he got old and for one year he could no longer raise his hand so that he could kill rabbits in the fall. I had to do it myself. Thus, my grandfather taught me how to properly tap, pull, throw out and slice them. I thought this would finally make me mature in his eyes. But during the day I understood that he likes animals much more than any boyishness. In fact, he didn’t blame me for not being a part of it at all, he was more envious that I didn’t have to.
Was this the first time you saw animals being killed?
No, I had just seen a pig being slaughtered before. I don’t remember how old I was, but I know it was a powerful experience for me. And not only the death of the animal itself, but also the moment when it becomes products. You see the guys drinking to drown out the sadness and fear that comes with being a killer. Anyone who simplifies it to a barbaric tradition doesn’t know what they’re talking about, in my opinion. I’ve never seen men look forward to killing a pig. They always approached him with great humility and respect. They did everything to make sure it didn’t even know it had died. I think everyone who eats meat should see an animal die at least once, be it a pig, rabbit, cow, or whatever.
Photo: Kviff.com
“Whoever simplifies the killer to a barbaric tradition doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” says the director.
Did you see anything symbolic in the killer? Was the clash of the countryside with the city, the male world with the female, the traditional society with the modern, a metaphor for you?
Not even. Rather, I perceived it as a field where I would be able to have a lot of fun as a screenwriter, because it offers a whole range of situations. For me, the most important character in the film is Karl. I realize that I have often behaved like him in my life and to some extent I still do – like a jerk. At the same time, it scares me that I will end up alone because of it. So I transferred this horror to the protagonist, who is paradoxically surrounded by his entire family on the killing machine. In the end, almost all characters have the fear of being alone encoded in them, and I think it is a strong theme for each of us.
What annoys you so much about Karl, in other words, about yourself?
Above all, the fact that he kicks himself around for his vain ego, that he can’t communicate with other people and can’t even apologize to them, even if he tries to. He is often convinced that he alone knows what is right and everyone else is a moron. He must always be after him, as if the whole world revolved only around him. And when some of his failures are revealed, he cannot admit the mistake. These are all qualities that I observe or have observed in myself, including how carelessly Karel sometimes has fun with women. I imprinted on it everything I don’t want to be.
Do you believe that a film about your own dark side will help you become a better person?
Certainly not. On the other hand, the film was four years in the making and during that time I told it so many times to so many different people that I think it must have left something in me. The time I spent on the subject was certainly not wasted.
At the same time, the killer is depicted in Mord as a ritual during which the egos of the male characters are shattered. Did you want to get under the tough skin of boyhood and show that there is often a vulnerability that we don’t show as much?
Exactly. I am convinced that the biggest tough guys are also the biggest weaklings. Which is completely natural, that’s no reproach. I appreciate it when guys can be firm and strong and take responsibility. At the same time, I like it when they can take off their mask and admit that they are moved or that they are afraid of something. I also admire when women can stand up for themselves when they overcome their doubts. I feel that among the women around me there is often an unnecessary insecurity that does not suit them. When they finally understand that they can trust each other, it’s incredibly attractive. Of course, I know how difficult it must be.
Photo: Renata Matějková, Seznam Zpravy
“I imprinted on him everything I don’t want to be,” says Martinec about the character of Karel.
You cast your own father Karel Martinec in the main role in the film. Why did you choose him?
My dad used to help me with on-camera rehearsals with non-actors, where you always need someone to throw in the text. So I knew from the beginning that he would play at least one of the supporting roles. Then, when I was consulting the film with Bohdan Sláma, he saw my dad on test shots and convinced me to cast him in the role of Karl. When a son watches his dad play, he understandably cannot look at him with dispassionate eyes. But Bohdan had the necessary distance and I’m glad that I listened to him in the end. So far, no one has told me that dad would fail in the role, on the contrary, everyone praises him.
But of course it was a big risk and it was difficult for both of us. Dad didn’t want to let his son down, and I again had a hard time believing him in the role. When you know someone so well, you write a character on their body and then they play it a little differently than you imagined, so you struggle with that. Fortunately, I was not alone on the set, and the dramaturg Honza Gebert and the rest of the crew assured me that dad accurately describes the character of Karel.
You admit that there were a lot of grievances between you and dad. Did filming help you bridge the gap and say some things to each other?
No, that didn’t happen. It is true that our relationship was very damaged. But he began to iron more with time than with any active steps. It gradually ironed itself out to a state in which we are probably both satisfied, although we never talked about it. But if we are as similar as I think, then we are not even worth a similar conversation. Which doesn’t mean we don’t like each other or aren’t friends, we just went through a tough time.
Read the Mord movie review:
Your dad is really quite convincing in the role of Karel, and the other non-actors you cast in Mord also don’t seem like they’re boring. How did you manage to bring them to such naturalness? I suppose the methods that work for professionals were of little use here.
That’s right, when communicating with the actors, you already have an established dictionary at your disposal to explain everything to them. They usually know exactly what you’re talking about, or they’ll get it when you show them the footage and start working on it themselves. But with non-actors, you can’t stick to any conceptual apparatus. Thus, you invent everything possible to help them perform authentically.
You keep trying to mentally bring them back to the situation their character is in. You confront them with what they would do in her place, what they would say and with what intonation, if it really happened. And if you’re in dire straits, you might even play the scene for them. Then you take the filmed material from the set to the editing room and you have to ask yourself fifty more times if it is believable.
What attracts you to work with non-actors? If, then, it is not just a virtue out of necessity.
It’s a bit of a virtue out of necessity. After all, I don’t have an unlimited budget to work with all the actors in the world I can dream of. On the other hand, I don’t understand why we don’t use non-actors more often. Sometimes it’s better to cast an average non-actor than a bad actor. Especially when he plays himself and you confront him with situations and environments he knows. What fascinates me about working with non-actors is the unpredictability of what will happen. It’s a lottery, but when you get it right, you get a magic that professional actors wouldn’t deliver in the same form.
Photo: Kviff.com, SZ
President Petr Pavel also came to see Mord in Karlovy Vary.
After the press screening, you said that you would be happy if five thousand people came to see Mord. It seemed to me that you were quite skeptical. Isn’t such an approach a disadvantage for the director?
I guess I’m more of a realist than a skeptic. Mord is a graduation film that I made while studying at FAMU. So I couldn’t care less how many people come to him. But now I am faced with the question of whether to shoot another one at all. The fact that we keep making films in the Czech Republic that people don’t go to the cinemas to see is a contradiction that we will inevitably have to resolve.
Film is one of the most expensive toys you can play with in art. Otherwise, you only work with millions of dollars in architecture. In addition, the films we are talking about are paid for by the taxes of all people. So if they don’t care about them, then the system is sick. We can of course say that we are creating some kind of cultural heritage. Even so, our method of financing seems a little fluffy to me.
On the other hand, wouldn’t Czech cinematography gradually begin to die if only films were made in our country that attracted, say, a hundred thousand people?
That’s true. As a viewer myself, I much prefer films attended by only 5,000 people to films attended by 100,000. And I will always defend them. But if only 17,000 people saw the film, which won the award for best director at the Czech Lions, then something is wrong. I think we live under the illusion that our films are of interest to anyone. Yes, some people are still interested, but there are far fewer of them than we think.
We are a small country with a limited audience whose attention span is increasingly fragmented, and we should take that into account. Maybe it’s time to stop making films only for the Czech Republic and start thinking about cinematography on a European scale. I don’t think that my colleagues don’t think so, I just don’t feel that we would be successful in this.
Adam Martinec (*1990)
He was born in Krnov. He studied philosophy and film science in Olomouc, and later joined the Department of Directing at FAMU in Prague. He collected his first award for the student film Sugar and Salt, with another short film Anatomy of a Czech Afternoon he won the Czech Lions and the Czech Film Critics Awards. This year, in the main competition of the film festival in Karlovy Vary, he presented his feature debut, Mord, and received a Special Recognition from the jury.
Do you think that the special recognition of the jury that you received for Mord at this year’s festival in Karlovy Vary will not attract viewers to cinemas?
Of course, this is a huge honor for me, because I was recognized by people I respect. Among others, the jury included the Icelandic writer Sjón, whose literature I love. I know that he likes the Czech one, so he must have been either completely enthusiastic about my film or hated it. Unfortunately, I was too timid to talk to him about it. However, the average person is probably not very interested in the award from Vary.
I just feel that movies are not that relevant anymore. Just as before, opera has ceased to be relevant. Opera divas used to have bouquets thrown at their feet on Národní trída, but that doesn’t happen anymore. Perhaps something similar is waiting for cinema now – most people will have fun with mass production, and next to that, films will be made for a few enthusiasts.
Finally, I can’t help but ask you about the comparison with films of the Czechoslovak new wave, which is often heard in reviews of Mord. Are you happy with it, or would you rather avoid such pigeonholes?
On the one hand, it is of course an honor for me. But at the same time, it’s a complete mess, because then I’ll have to listen to the fact that I’m unsuccessfully trying to imitate the new wave. Which I wasn’t really trying to do. I think in the end you will find very few points of contact between Mord and the films of the new wave, and they are all terribly general. That there are non-actors, humor and serious topics at the same time? After all, there are many such films, and not only in our country.
