Nature Bites Back: An Interview with Krystof Zlatnik, Director of Lys

It’s appropriate that the director and I leave the W Hotel’s black obelisk of a lobby to chat in the warmer, naturally-lit environs of a coffee shop next door. His new movie Lys (screening for SIFF at the Neptune June 10 and 11) is, among other things, a ready acknowledgement of the beauty that’s blinding us as we hit the asphalt. It’s also a cautionary fable about how that beauty can turn against us, even when we think we’re doing enough to preserve it.

In Lys, a teenage girl (Hanna Schwamborn) turns up mysteriously at a German power plant, shortly after a citywide blackout. Her presence and the power outage appear to be intertwined; and the plant’s architect, Dr. Karl Bardel (Horst-Gunter Marx), investigates. With the ostensibly green Terra-power plant edging towards a reactor meltdown, Bardel works to determine if young Lys is the key to saving the reactor, or if she’s actually a catalyst for nature’s wrath.

Zlatnik makes his feature directorial debut with Lys, and he’s crafted an erratic but impressive film. At just under an hour, the film could use more exposition (SIFF programmers are preceding its screenings with presentations of Roman’s Ark, a critically-acclaimed Aussie sci-fi short, to flesh out the run time), but Lys‘s emphasis on mood and enigma over hard data actually works in its favor. 

A dark fairy-tale aura infuses the proceedings, with Schwamborn proving to be a magnetic presence in the lead. And even at this early stage in his career, Zlatnik displays a knack for pacing and vivid imagery that more experienced directors would give their eyeteeth for. Simply put, Lys often looks incredible on a big screen. And amazingly, it’s a student film (more on that later).

Whether it’s budding female sexuality or nature’s untamed power seething beneath a placidly beautiful surface, the character of Lys, of course, is movie semaphore for any number of metaphors. But at the core, she’s an awkward kid just beginning to see her potential develop. And it’s easy to see a kindred spirit between the character and the film’s director. Even with the beginnings of a beard covering his face, Zlatnik still looks far younger than his 31 years; and in person, he’s reserved–no, scratch that, just plain shy–at first. But as our conversation progresses, Zlatnik opens up. His smarts, and his passion for what he’s doing, ring true.

Lys makes its World Premiere with its SIFF engagement, and Zlatnik has only recently begun sending his film to other festivals. He’s also just starting to play ball with producers and financiers for future projects. Talking to him is a unique experience; a first-hand look at the very start of a young director’s upward trajectory.

Lys is a science fiction movie, but it plays more like a dark fairy tale; a fable. Was that always the intent, or did it start out as a more ‘hard science fiction’ film?

It’s kind of inspired by Japanese Anime. There’s a whole [anime] genre about girls getting into their teens and developing special powers. So it was kind of inspired by that. And because I also dealt with our relationship to Earth, I tried to combine this with a little bit of realism…to get it into the real world. It’s part comic-book movie, but without being too out-there.

I was interested in the mythic structure behind it. The girl starts talking to some kind of God, but this time it’s not up there. It’s like the Earth, and she’s the chosen one; a very classic set-up…

Hanna is a very striking presence onscreen. How did you happen upon her for Lys?

Well, we were looking for appropriate actresses in Germany, and meeting them in different cities in different casting sessions. But because it was a student film, we can’t pay them. They have contracts and if this movie should make money, they get their piece; but usually [student films] don’t. At one casting in Berlin, Hanna showed up, and she really loved the script. She was really, really into it. Then we made scenes out of the script, and I really saw that she completely knew what the character was about. So it was clear very fast that we could work with her. And it proved right, because most of the time she knew where she was, what it was about, and was very intuitive.

The character of Karl Bardel, the scientist, goes through an interesting character arc. Could you talk about the character, and his progression through the movie?

He’s this kind of searcher, really, and he’s looking for answers and is open and receptive to what’s going on; to see more. That’s why he could build something like [the Terra-Plant], and see the connections. He’s the classic character [of whom] you ask, “On whose side are you?”  He was probably the one who built something, and everyone said, “This is safe, this is the next step,” so while the movie’s going he starts realizing what power’s driving Lys to get back there. What is she supposed to do? His progression is to understand that maybe–even if you think you’re doing everything right–you can be wrong.

Our problem is that we are not made to look far ahead, as humans. And many problems come of that, because everyone’s just like, “OK, this is too expensive to do right now,” but if you look long-term at things, it would be very different: Our behavior now might be a lot more expansive. That’s our big problem, and he kind of has to struggle with that. That’s relevant for the girl, too, because he kind of starts to become this father figure to her.

Lys clocks in at 52 minutes. Was there ever a temptation at some point to make it longer?

Well, again, it was my final student film. And usually… you get a TV station to get money to your final movie. Then you have enough [money] together to make a feature. But with this kind of story and subject, it’s very difficult to get a TV station in Germany, because they are not so much into science fiction and that kind of thing. This movie is a prequel to the original idea we had, to make a long movie. So we wrote a script, and it’s about Lys being twenty years old, and the world’s already polluted. So our story continued there. Because we didn’t have the money–and it was too crazy, what we wanted to do–we started thinking about making a shorter prequel.

…I’d made thirty-minute movies before, but I hadn’t gotten enough money to make a full feature, and I wanted still to do a longer movie. So I aimed at this length, kind of; knowing that it’s difficult, but also knowing that this is more like a step, hopefully, towards the next real feature.

Was Lys completely financed by the school?

It was partly financed by the school; there’s a budget from the school that we won in a prize, for the production. And we put our own money in it. It cost about 44,000 Euros. There’s much in it you don’t see in those numbers, because we could use editing and lighting equipment from the school to finish it up.

What were some of your influences, cinematically? You’ve talked about how German television as a whole doesn’t appreciate science fiction. What’s it been like, creating science fiction in Germany in that environment?

Well, my mother took me when I was six or eight years old to a re-screening of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. I think that was like the initiation for me to love science fiction and all that came with Star Wars and Spielberg movies. Once I knew I wanted to make films, I tried to get to the school.

You have to make a film to get to the school. My first try to get to the school was this near-end-of-time flick, with girls running through the forest, and fighting with swords. That didn’t work out [laughs]. My next try, I made it more serious. And I made…a little drama with good acting. So they took me.

At the school you have freedom to do what you want to do. You talk about the stories you want to do, and no one says, “No, you can’t do it.”  The difficult thing is that I knew if I was going to do those movies at the school and go out with them, that it’s not necessarily the best representation for me in Germany. But it’s definitely what I want to do. I got supported [by the school], but those movies…get more appreciated outside Germany.

There’s a strong international market for science fiction, particularly here in the states. This the North American premiere, correct?

Actually, it’s the world premiere. I sent it to the big German festivals, and they wouldn’t play it. So I’m very happy to be here, and very honored.

What projects are you working on after Lys?

There are now different projects, with different producers; we have to see where it goes.

What’s it been like dealing with people in the movie industry, as opposed to on a student-filmmaking level?

I’m making my first steps, so I can’t say too much about it. The producers I’m working with, so far, have been good. I’m not at the point yet where I have the real pressure of a studio that’s financing or whatever. So that will be something I have to consider.

Are there any German filmmakers whose current work you follow with interest?

There are many very good German directors. But I try not to be too influenced by them, because the market is very influenced by television. Television has its money in all the movies. Sometimes they [filmmakers] get too inspired by that. You get inspired by what you watch, and the only reason that this movie looks kind of expensive is because I’m more inspired by movies from America or from Asia. That’s what the Germans tell me; [that] it doesn’t look German. They say this is a good thing [laughs].

Would you ever consider doing a non-genre film?

Depends where you are, right? I think so, but I’m attracted to stories that go beyond…our world here; that make us see something that is larger than just one of us. I like that perspective. Depends on the story, but basically, if you have a good script, I’d do non-science fiction. We’ll see. Someone offered me a possibility to do a comedy in Germany; a parody. You have to find what you like in the project, and you can do it.

The only other German genre film that I can think of at SIFF this year was a vampire movie, We are The Night. I enjoyed it.

I haven’t seen it yet… [The director] got together very great talent from Germany, but it wasn’t such a hit…

It’s a shame. Sometimes [directors] get enough money to put out a great science fiction or horror movie like that, and it doesn’t work, and [producers] say, “Well, the genre doesn’t work.” But that’s not true.

Do you follow horror films?

I try to watch a lot of them. There’s another project, again; more into the horror direction, that I’m planning to do, so I try to watch a lot of horror. I liked Alien, obviously. The Descent… It’s always a question, if you can do something like Paranormal Activity with not much money.

Are you a fan of cinema-verite type genre films like The Blair Witch Project, or Paranormal Activity?

Yeah. In my first year at the Akademie, I made a movie called First Impact. It’s hand-held camera, from a character that’s there; like Blair Witch style. They stumble across some strange stuff that’s happening, then it turns out to be an alien invasion. So I was attracted to the concept of making something appear real, and have it be something supernatural. Many people, when they saw Cloverfield, said, “They got your idea [laughs].” I was like, “No, this idea’s been around for awhile…” I like that concept. That’s something; to take the fantasy world and make it appear more real.