Daniel Kokotajlo, Morfydd Clark and Robert Emms on Starve Acre | BFI Q&A

guys what this film is such a atmospheric movie to watch especially you know in a situation like this with a soldout audience Mori have you kind of seen the film with an audience have you kind of experienced that um yes I have um yeah and it's great I love watching horror with an audience because I think it's so fun to kind of feel the kind of community intake of breath so yeah it's lovely to be with people being scared I guess yeah Robert have you are you able to watch this movie and kind of separate yourself from you know being involved in it and kind of watch it and enjoy it as a horror film in that way uh I think so but it's also harder than that because you kind of you can't you sort of when you come to watch it after shooting it you're you're sort of remembering everything again for the first time of you know what you shot and where you shot it um and particularly with this I I I think the death scene that I have was slightly different um on screen so that was quite surprising um to see but yeah yeah well what happened what what had changed well I think initially we shot me actually being stabbed by yeah Mor um but I think get my aim right it's very no I I I convinced myself it was so appallingly acted on my part that Dan that Dan had to cut it out but he told me that it was more effective that way but so I just I I bought what you said to me um Daniel congratulations on this wonderful film tell us a little bit about the kind of early stages of this you know adapting Andrew Michael Hurley's story and kind of you know bringing it to the big screen um the early stages I was um big fan of Andrew's work previously had read the Loney Devil's day I loved his uh the atmosphere he creates um then I read star Acer and again I was really taken with the the sort of level of detail in it you know um and it also just like spoke to me about like springtime and rebirth and resurrection and so I enjoyed that kind of spiritual religious side to the story so that's why I got involved yeah and how did you kind of you know how much of of what was on the pages there on the screen how much did you have to kind of change and adapt um it's that's a good question I it changed so much during the development like the the book is is is it's very psychological you know it's all about the inner emotions of these two characters uh um so that was a big one like working out how to put that on screen and I was trying to use a lot you know JS to posing their relationship with the landscape with the trying to connect the sort of inner details of the of of the hair regen regenerating and connecting that to their relationship as well um those were ways I was um trying to articulate what was going on um um I don't know and then also we had to sort of like um um like embellish certain elements of the folklore of the like the sort of reason why Jack gray was there um those elements we were working on morph as a huge uh fan of St mud it's always fun to see you in another creepy horror movie like this um tell us a little bit about kind of what what were your initial thoughts when you read script and and and your character um well I was a fan of Daniel so I was really excited to get the script um and I think when I was reading it I really like kind of horror films but also just films in general that kind of by showing their particular type of horror it really shows you kind of the other side of the coin so I just couldn't when the whole time I was reading it I was just like I wish I could make Juliet a cup of tea I wish I could like tell Richard to talk about his feelings and blah blah blah blah blah and I really like those ones that kind of as you're reading it you're imagining this parallel universe when none of this was happening and so that kind of made me think I really like this yeah uh Robert you work with Daniel before on apostasy tell tell me a little bit about this experience working with him this time around yeah it was um I I think when I came onto the film I I was I I thought Dan was had sort of become a lot more confident in his approach uh especially with actors and and the way he kind of allowed the script to kind of develop in an organic way uh on the day and that that was fine and that was just part of the the the way the piece growed uh grew so suddenly can't speak English um so so yeah no that that was that was a nice a nice development I think to see it was also nice for us working with an actor and director who had like a previous relationship that was made like you feel very secure around that so it was great Daniel tell us a little bit about casting then uh you know this fantastic group of actors with these incredible performances particularly that kind of you know that married couple morphi and Matt at the center of it and that very intense relationship um well we casting happened quite early on in the development of this of the story of the script um had moreid in in mind almost from the beginning i' seen St Mor and loved it um I just you know her face was sort of stuck in my mind while I was working on drafts um uh and as a result I sort of changed quite a lot of things in the script and the idea to sort of suit um a Welsh background actually because in the story in the in the book she's Scottish um so I changed little things like uh the kid's name from u in to oow in um just like little details that made sense um and this and M then also was pretty early on uh had Matt in mind um I'd seen a few films of his that I loved uh his house um Charlie say um realized he there was another side to him that I'd not seen before and got quite excited by that you know both both got sort classical features and felt like they were PE characters from you know the 70s as well that was important and I just like the idea that um m as someone who played Doctor Who as well was in this cuz it's like there's there's a sort sort of connection to Nigel Neil as well in the storytelling and that was a precur you know quas was a precursor for Doctor Who and so I like that connection yeah well but tell me a little bit about working with Matt Smith then and again you have those kind of incredible very intense scenes together obviously this couple go through a lot in this movie how was that process of working on these characters together yeah I mean it is just just so lovely to work with Matt isn't it like and I think when you're doing something kind of quite heavy subject matter and bit scary you do have to be having fun when you're not kind of in that moment and Matt's so good at kind of being so there instantly once the camera's on but also you can just drop it so quickly and he's kind of um yeah very encouraging and just just the right amount of silly when you need it um and also just really exciting to like do scenes with because he brings so much to it like he is just really continually surprising and very generous so yeah it was wonderful to work with him yeah well how was your experience of working with Matt and what was that kind of shoot like it looked very cold from what we see yeah actually I was going to say I think I think also part of the work is sometimes done for you because I mean the elements in in this film I mean the weather changed in within within a day sort of we passed through four different seasons it was always when was outside as well it would R it was a big shame so sometimes it sometimes you know actually sometimes that that does does a lot of the work for you so you then don't need to between takes be kind of like staying in it or whatever you can just relax and kind of kind of go with it but that was yeah what's quite special about this film really but but I I loved I loved I mean especially with the supporting characters around this film we we kind of come into their environment and and are obviously affected by it in some some of us in in in horrible ways and um that that I thought that was quite a nice element to it really you know they were sort of cocooned in their kind of psychosis in a way really and and as characters we yeah we sort of come into that world and and and cheer us up cheer you up I supp that's good to hear though cuz you're never sure if actors enjoy standing out in the rain doing 20 takes um it's nice to hear that they're like I am here for him I remember that day I did have you standing out there and we did 20 verions of that yeah that was quite a long that was quite a long hour just just different variations of shouting that one line which I had absolutely no idea what the hell it was supposed to mean um but and I'm not sure I still know now but um but yeah but but actually that's why doing film I mean equally you do the and you get a whole other experience that's kind of immersive in its own way you know film is amazing because you you get to you get to be in the environment and and be directly affected by that in a in a totally real way and this film completely kind of encapsulates that I think yeah you can really kind of feel the elements I think when you watch it Daniel how was that for you shooting it because you've got those beautiful shots of that kind of snowstorm and everything you know how I guess coincidental was that how planned was that tell us a bit about that well the snowstorm in particular that was uh that's a story because we we shot late spring in the H to try and capture sense of winter at the beginning of the shoot and by the end it was a summer feel at the film but the first week we got there it The Dales had a heat wave so it was like 30° there in February so we had to get the snow machines out and and um I was quite embarrassed by the footage um uh none of of it was really working and then and then the second week it was all interiors and but then we looked outside and it was a glorious snowstorm um so we ran out and reshot some of the scenes okay so that wasn't a that wasn't a snow machine yeah yeah so a lot of kind of chasing the weather back and forth then wasn't there something about with with the um the tree the the the the trunk that was revealed that eventually kind of got kind of completely bogged to it by the rain and eventually had to kind of be rebuilt in something I think didn't it when the Toads loved it the Toads we did feel under attack from nature it was quite amazing yeah yeah they were it was get it was getting flooded every morning we'd turn up and have to spend an hour or so dealing with the tree and yeah got the buckets out you had those lovely 70s wooly jumpers though know some good costumes how was that you know morphi how was that for you kind of immersing yourself in the world of That 70s Northern England I suppose throughout this story yeah we were shoot they found this incredible location didn't you that was it's how do I describe it the there's like a slight incline to all the fields around so you feel like you're somewhere flat but then you can't really see the sky um and so we really did feel so immersed and stuck and cocooned um and yeah it was really really helpful to kind of have that because I would really struggle with that I just the whole time I was like I just couldn't live here couldn't live here and then was like it's because I can't drive I think if you could drive this actually quite nice but it was really lovely to be kind of able to do it all in that place and for us all to be there for kind of a long time really helped with kind of Juliet and Richard I think and just how claustrophobic and the pressure cooker of their life really because it feels like the detail is really in there Daniel visually the the kind of period set stuff was that all you know how much of that did you have to to create for that sort of production design all of it yeah um we take it you know using the book as a guide as well you know and and with the location in the book it talked about it being a place an isolated place but it was close that they could get to work and also that it was a place where not much grew there you know as if it was cursed in some way and that you know that uh house had that feel to it the way it did sort of slope down um into a kind of bog and there wasn't growing there and you know you couldn't quite see the Horizon and in some way you all you already felt like you're underground in some weird Twisted way so I love that um and yeah and then we work very hard on all the details we're watching I was watching a hell of a lot of documentaries on the Yorkshire film archive um was quite surprised by how colorful the um Yorkshire houses were back then so that's why we got into those kind of bright um sort of um very busy patterns and and yellows in the kitchen and that kind of stuff it feels Daniel like it's in you know that brilliant tradition of that kind of 70s British folk horror were there any particular influences that you drew from from kind of over others um we discovered discovered an amazing film got akenfield by Peter Hall incredible film uh was shot on on 16 mil uh but ALS but also in 235 um so it was one of the few films I could find from the' 70s that had was in that aspect ratio it's a po poetic film so that was like the key influence for me and then there's lots of other Classics like the Nigel Neil uh M uh lots of play for today's photograph Robin red breast yeah all a lot of those stuff you can see in the season we've got on here well come and see some of this stuff on the big screen because that's a very rare treat right to get to see some of those amazing things on the big screen um there is this kind of almost feels like a Resurgence of folk horror um are you a fan more fifth really of kind of folk horror and what do you think is the reason for that kind of appeal that we have particularly as British audiences H yes I do like folk horror um I grew up kind of loving folk stories and also being taught lots of the ab anogi which you should look into if you don't know because I think you'd could make something really cool of it that just kind of really it's kind of magic without the glitter um that I kind of always like the idea of it um and yeah there's something just I I was always really fascinated by the idea as a child like of the fairy rings you know this thing that could entice you but that was bad that was something I always was quite fascinated by um and so getting this little hair kind of making Juliet feel that was really fun um but no I don't know uh tell us a little bit about the hair then you know this incredible cre like how how was that realized on screen you know Daniel was that how much of that was visual versus practical how did how did you make it work most of it practical yeah we um well when I finished reading the book that was the first question how do we do this and I instantly thought of zank Meers Alice you know he version of Alice and Wonderland well that was stop motion and when I looked into it you know I didn't have any stop motion skills it was like out of the question and then the next best thing was puppetry and I'm big fan of puppets and film you know I love Dark Crystal and you know Jim Henson's work and so I got really excited by that and and got to to meet the the puppet team and love working with them there's like seven puppeteers working on it wow yeah um so that got you know it got quite cozy in the in a small you know box bedroom with seven puppeteers and 20 30 crew members um there was lots of guys in blue suits yeah hanging off yeah doing the most incredible acrobatics to not be in the shop yeah and kind of slithering out on the floor of the camera but it was quite fun as well because it was like this is the Unseen World just in terms of a like fol horror thing it's like they all they're invisible they're really not right now yeah in quite a small space I guess right as well Mor how was it like kind of shooting those scenes with the hair but it was just incredible working with that team and those puppeteers because you see the hair itself like just as it is unanimated and it is just incredible like my dog treated it like an animal um and then one those puppeteers get their hands on it it it just it's so alive and it never gets old seeing it come to life does it and um yeah that we just kind of particularly with that last scene there was kind of loads of discussion of kind of like how the hair is feeling like of course in this moment and we were seeing a different side to it and stuff and it was just lovely to be able to do something so collaborative really because there was so many more people than there would ordinarily be in that situation yeah Robert did you see it as well on no I didn't I just I I I obviously see the uh the bones and everything like I see the actual uh the actual hair know when I came to see it in the London Film Festival here I I obviously anticipated that moment but I found it so surprising on screen still even though I knew it was coming it's it's still such an amazing moment I think I think there is there is an amazing difference between seeing something that is puppeteered and something that is is C CGI and it's I don't know I feel that you respond to it more I think when it's puppeteered you do feel that it's it's more alive in some way for sure yeah Daniel how did you want sorry no I we had real rabbits there and so we would block and rehearse with the real rabbits to see how they would react and then wow try to then emulate that with a I was going to say how kind of levent I guess did you want that thing to look you know versus how kind of enchanting or just just normal I suppose and natural yeah that was the brief really just to keep it as as natural looking as possible CU they are quite mysterious wondrous creatures English has and they're quite gaunt and sort of gnarly and these big bulging eyes that quite intimidating so that was the brief you know with thepp with the model makers I remember asking you why you weren't using real hair and you like unfortunately apparently they die of nervousness it's a real shame little things yeah you don't want to SC something to death but they don't want to be around us as you say they are like a magical little fairy creature that they're like we are separate from you yeah yeah incredible tell me a little bit more Daniel about achieving the look of this because again there's this kind of you use things like zooms and there's this lovely kind of grain as well that almost feels like you're watching something made in that era but am I right thinking this wasn't shot on film though no couldn't really afford it and plus with all the puppeteering and things um we I we found Adam and I the dop we found these amazing lenses um um 7s anamorphic lenses that had a halation and distortion on them and you could tell straight away it felt like the 70s and and then we did print the edit onto a 35 mm film and sort of left all the Grain and dirt on there yeah did really did you do something did you put the the the the vocal the sound through some kind of filter wasn't there there was some kind of I remember on set there was like talk about it cuz everyone all the actors were like oh no it'll be fine it'll be fine because Dan's putting this filter on and then he's putting a filter on the voice so I think everything will be fine don't worry did you do that I think maybe the fil was about Ben was talking about turning the the dialogue into mono yeah just so it CU it make it feel more reminiscent of that I don't know if we actually did that in the end yeah did it sound like it was in mono the dialogue car there was some beautiful sound design though and music as well tell me a little bit about that Dan about achieving the sound of this movie yeah that was crucial that was how we sort of elevated it you know moved away from the grief and into a story that was about something like magical and about rebirth you know that never wanted to judge the characters same with apostasy like this was a story about spiritualism about ways to deal with grief or how to stop the sort of natural process and sometimes you are offered these things that are magical and so I never wanted to judge the characters like you can watch the film and be like God what are they playing at you know and just get out of there but it's the music that's letting you know that how they're processing it it's like has this beguiling effect that draws them in and that's so I love the music because I love what Matthew Herbert did with that it has almost as like this sort of Dark Fantasy like Disney feel to it in places you know especially when the hair's coming to life and you get that it's about them slowly start coming back together at the end Mor did was that important to you as well that you kind of you don't necessarily want to judge these characters initially and what they're going what they're going through and what they do as well like how did you feel about your character and what she goes through um I think it I think I very much understood kind of the feeling of being stuck um and it was quite inter we used to speak a lot about how how we could like make her being stuck kind of interesting and compelling um and I think it kind of it was amazing to see the music for me because I was like that was so kind of what I imagined in her head that there was just like that what she's doing and what she's thinking and feeling are so odds um I can't remember what the question was sorry no yeah just about about you kind of how important it was to be able to kind of get in the head of your character I suppose uh yeah well I think what really helped actually with her as well was like Erin's character um because I think as soon as she arrives it's kind of like you're like oh these people existed before this there was this whole life um and like i' I it's another reason I love the script because I'm very close to my sister and it kind of I think that sister relationship unfortunately is ends terribly obviously but um there are moments in the films you know it's like oh this is who Juliet is like um and I find it really lovely when you have kind of characters that there are moments where kind of love and people manage to open them up a bit more when Juliet felt like that that yeah no no I I I didn't judge her at all I just wanted to look after her yeah yeah absolutely um we're going to turn it over to the audience in just a minute as well so um we will ask for a show of hands in a minute we've got a roving mic um Robert though I just want to ask you as well going back to your death scene in this you've had to die in quite a lot of projects you've done in your time I do yeah I get killed off a lot and I'm not sure I'm not sure why um but yeah know I I I I was saying to you a minute ago I I I I think I at one point I thought maybe I might hold a record for this or I don't know why I thought that it was definitely getting above my station but I looked how many times is it for you I only about 13 14 deaths I've done but Christopher Le it's quite a lot but Christopher Le did did including his own uh which was the best most 128 127 I think something like that which was loads wow it's amazing but yeah I'm not I'm not dying so much these days but um but yeah know I've got a couple of good ones coming up so um okay um well I've already mentioned that the Mabinogi which is the Welsh folk tales I was just obsessed with growing up um and I think when I kind of inspires me for a lot of things really is the story of bwe um which is a story of a woman made of flowers and she's created to be the wife of this man who's cursed to never have a wife from the realm of men um and she's created and she's beautiful and perfect um but she is made of Nature and the flowers and she can't be controlled um and so she's kind of kept as this perfect wife and then follows her nature and falls in love with what is he a hunter grono peer um and ends up kind of it all goes wrong he um they try to kill her husband um and instead he turns into a rotting Eagle which but um and in the end her her kind of lover is just like I'll put myself to death because I feel so terrible and basically um betrays her and she's like and I'll die too um and the person who's putting this the punishment on them is like no you won't die um you'll be turned into a bird that all the other birds hate um so you can never come out in the daytime because obviously she's made of flowers and she loves the Sun and it's the Welsh creation myth of the owl um but I think it was this idea of this kind of woman captive and this woman Creator to be something that she just couldn't fulfill um because it wasn't her nature is something that I find is often very useful yeah there's a great there's a great book and I think an old TV series from the70s called the ow service which I think is based on that myth isn't it yeah um Daniel what about you any other kind of fol tales that you drew from oh that I drew from or that you just particularly you know enamored with not really uh I like I grew up really religious so that folk tales and that kind of stuff was out of bounds so um uh it's only like more recently I got into to you know you know obvious PE Mr James and and Nigel Neil again and Robert hman are really connected with a lot of his stories um but yeah there's something in all those stories that I've read that the the idea of the Wood Sprite always comes up in English folk tales this a whistle in the wind um and they're always called Jack as well I've realized um there's even a line I don't know if anyone's read the blood and Satan's claw the new uh novel there's a section in there where they talk about Jack and its connection to Wood Sprites so I started drawing from that a little bit as well amazing Robert did you grow up with any kind of folktales or anything like that no maybe I I can't I think that's definitely that that was definitely a good question for Mor to answer that I'm not going to better that no you can't top that almost can you incredible um we are out of time already um so I'm so sorry no uh uh so guys thank you all so much for coming um the movie is going to be out next week and also if you want to see more of Daniel's work as well you can also check out apostasy on BFI player as well beautiful film very much worth a watch thank you all so much for coming and a big thank you to Daniel Mori and Robert thank you