We had the honor of being part of the Czech premiere of the drama Pierce, which took place on February 20th at Kino Pilotů in Prague. We are delighted to bring you an exclusive interview with the film’s director, who received the Best Director Award for this work at KVIFF.
Let’s go back a year for a moment. I dare to say that The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is a national treasure for our country. Every year, we eagerly follow the personalities who visit and attend film premieres. Last year, it was you who became the center of attention, both in the hall and beyond. In one of your interviews, you even mentioned that people were stopping you on the street. How did you feel? Were you nervous?
Nelicia: Oh gosh, it is funny to receive this question because I recently discovered a press photo, that I had not seen before, of me holding the globe at the ceremony looking like I wanted to run away from the cameras!
I am quite camera shy, so I had a much better time in off-camera moments when people would stop me on the streets to tell me they loved the film, as for me the film is like a part of myself. Of course, this is the best feeling in the world and the reason I became a film director – to both thrill and touch audiences. Also, so far of all the festivals I’ve been to with Pierce, the Karlovy Vary Film Festival remains the festival with the audience who asked the most in-depth, layered and thoughtful questions. My actors were both also shocked at the complexity of the questions asked.
Has the award changed your life in any way?
Nelicia: The award was such a huge honor and shock, especially as the jury was so high-profile last year and included Christine Vachon, Geoffrey Rush and one of my favorite writers Sjon. It changed my life completely and opened many doors as my next project DUET, an English and Cantonese musical set in San Francisco, is an American one, and KVIFF has such a great reputation in Hollywood.
We greatly appreciate that you are personally attending the public premiere of your film Pierce in Prague. Are you planning to visit more places in Europe or even outside the continent? If not, why did you choose the Czech Republic?
Nelicia: I had such a fantastic, life-changing experience at Karlovy Vary that I just had to come back for the Czech premiere! This is the first European premiere I am attending personally for Pierce and I would never miss it for the world. I am also lucky that Pilot Films, our Czech distributor, really believes in Pierce and were so enthusiastic about distributing it that they bought the film months before KVIFF, way before I won the award. As a filmmaker it is so great to have a distributor with such strong beliefs who will go all out for your film! And it has been wonderful working with them!
So far I have chosen to not attend too many festivals personally as I need to stay focused on writing my script, but last year the other great festival I attended, also due to the passionate and enthusiastic Korean audience, was the Busan International Film Festival. This year is more focused on attending promotions for the cinema release in various territories, so I go wherever they need me. Soon I will be in Taiwan for the cinema release, and I hope to attend our Korean release because it was my favorite audience along with the Czech audience.
You often mention that your relationship with your brother inspired you to write the script for the film. However, can you imagine finding yourself in a situation similar to that of the main characters in the movie? How would you react? I believe questions like these must have crossed your mind more than once.
Nelicia: I actually wrote Pierce with the ending in mind, the extreme final choice of the younger brother Zijie, because it is something that I believe I might be capable of doing – if I was much younger. I am a highly delusional and imaginative person, which is why I must make films so that the madness can be channeled into art and I can live a more normal existence! With every experience that someone you thought you knew and loved turned out to be another falsehood, one grows more wary and fearful of people. However, even in these situations, I find myself making choices similar in nature to Zijie.
It must have been very challenging to reflect the nature of sibling love within the context presented in Pierce. Did you have a clear vision of how to achieve this from the beginning, or did the directions on how to develop the storyline evolve during filming? Was it difficult not to lean toward one side of the story? It must have been mentally exhausting.
Nelicia: I wrote the script of Pierce for 5 years and the most challenging part for me was to understand why Zijie made his final choice. It is something I know in my heart is right, and something I could imagine doing too, yet the reasons remained unclear… Until I finished writing the script. Rather than thinking about telling an ambiguous story from different angles, I focused on making the dream of a perfect sibling relationship so enticing and wonderful that both the audience and Zijie could always suspend disbelief about who his brother really is. I also made sure that his older brother was never a purely evil character, who did come to care for Zijie in his own way, which is what ultimately gives the audience the urge to keep watching as they are holding on to that glimmer of hope.
You are known for often exploring paradoxes in your work – where a mentally healthy person can sometimes be far more disturbed than their mentally challenged counterpart. You also delve into the theme of love in various forms, which is evident in Pierce and not only there. We can also see it in your other works, like a God Sister or Freeze. Would you say that this theme is characteristic of your work? Do you already have another story on this topic in mind that we might expect in the future?
Nelicia: I think the question ‚What is Love?‘ is probably going to be a staple in all my films. Family will also be in these films too as I am close to mine. My next film Duet that I mentioned earlier explores how art is also a form of love, and how great art often involves great love.
One last question. You were a national fencer, and your talent for this sport is strongly reflected in Pierce. Do you miss fencing and that environment?
Nelicia: When I shot Pierce, all my ex-opponents from the Taiwanese team from when I fenced for Singapore, who are now coaches themselves, pulled out all the stops to help me. They filled up buses with their fencing students and shipped them to my set to be extras in fencing scenes – in fact the school team coach is played by my ex-opponent and good friend Chen Tzu-Ying!
Fencers are very passionate people and because we are so niche, there is always a comradery amongst us. But actually what I miss most about fencing and sport is that there is usually some fairness (barring extreme circumstances) – two people stand on a piste and fight, and the one who fences better wins. In the film industry, there are no rules and no justice, in fact nothing makes much sense to me most of the time. I find this difficult to navigate. Which is why I am even more appreciative when good things do happen, like the entire KVIFF experience. I will always look back on KVIFF with great gratitude as one of the most magical things to have happened to me.
Thank you for an incredibly honest interview!
Source: author’s text, Nelicia Low, pilot-film.cz
