Parasit

2014

Fantasy

min

Zürcher Hochschule der Künste

A girl climbs onto the roof to watch the sunrise. A boy climbs onto the roof to spray graffiti. No happy end.

Festivals

Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival, Switzerland – Prix Taurus Studio for Innovation
Molins De Rei Horror Film Festival, Spain
OFFline Filmfestival, Ireland
Shnit, Switzerland
Solothurner Filmtage, Switzerland

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Process

I’ve always been into the idea of deconstructing genres. Initially, we had developed a sort of a postmodern, expressionist Nosferatu concept. About two weeks before shooting, we had to come to terms with the fact that the whole thing was way (way way) too ambitious. We changed the plot and the concept, but the main theme remained: Confronting an ancient vampiric creature with contemporary problems.

On the one hand, I find the film’s delicacy beautiful. On the other hand, the lack of dialogue and the focus on spherical imagery lead to a lot of people not getting the point. In the end she looks into the sun. With her being a vampire that’s kind of a big deal. Unfortunately, a lot of people didn’t get the suicide part, which is her motive from the start. So the whole plot didn’t make any sense. Lesson learned, we should’ve let her scream.

The location was our secret star and biggest challenge. We had to exchange our 1st assistant director right before shooting, as he’s afraid of heights and couldn’t climb the wobbly stairs. On top of that we were surprised by an unannounced storm that almost blew us off the roof. We had to evacuate. The night after, it was raining so we had to organize another nighttime shoot a month later. Second lesson learned: If you are shooting outside, always have an extra day to compensate for the unpredictable weather.