Summer Survivors Interview: Marija Kavtaradze
“I always wanted to be what I saw on screen. And I want girls and women to see as many different female portraits as possible — strong, cool, romantic, ambitious, aggressive, silly, ugly, pretty or whatever.”
SUMMER SURVIVORS is a sweet, intimate film that explores mental illness and complicated conversations between four relative strangers.
Indre (Indré Patkauskaité), an ambitious postgraduate, fights her way into a leading psychiatric hospital to work on the technical end of the field. Instead, she is tasked with taking a long term bipolar patient, Paulius (Paulius Markevicius), to a new facility. Joining them for the drive is the recently suicidal patient, Juste (Gelminé Glemžaité), and a nurse at the hospital forced along after Indre protests.
This is the catalyst that pushes this beautiful, awkward and oftentimes silly film on its journey.
Director and writer Marija Kavtaradzė crafts a touching story that helps to break down the stigmas of mental illness and strikes a perfect balance between the fantasy of adventure and the reality of the task at hand.
SUMMER SURVIVORS is the debut feature film for Marija Kavtaradzė, a graduate of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Film Directing Studies. Kavtaradzė is considered one of the most talented upcoming filmmakers in her country and was granted support from the Lithuanian Film Centre for this film. Kavtaradzė won best student film at the Lithuanian Film Academy Awards Silver Crane for her short fiction film I’m Twenty Something in 2014 and co-wrote the feature film The Saint (directed by Andrius Blazevicius) that premiered at Busan IFF and Warsaw ISFF in 2016.
You can see the World Premiere of Summer Survivors at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, screening as part of Discovery on September 7th at 7:00PM, September 9th at 10:00PM and September 15th at 5:00PM.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got involved with filmmaking.
Marija Kavtaradze: I am from Vilnius, Lithuania. In 2014 I finished my BA in film directing at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. I write scripts and make films. Summer Survivors is my first feature film.
When writing my script for Summer Survivors, I was working in a school as a teacher and class manager, so a big part of the first draft of my screenplay was written in a teacher’s lounge.
I always loved watching films and probably this led me to filmmaking. As a kid and teenager, most of all I loved spending my summers in Vilnius and my perfect day would be going to a video store and renting three films a day (you take two — third one is free). We would spend a long time with my sister and mother choosing films and these are some of my favourite memories. We would usually rent one comedy, one horror film (or thriller) and one drama. I could never understand why people would say: “It’s such a nice day, let’s go outside, the weather is too beautiful to watch films”.
I remember (maybe I’m not old or wise enough to talk about my childhood, but I’ll do that anyway, as these questions made me feel nostalgic) that I read a book when I was about eleven years old and I was really moved by it, so I took my notebook and started drawing some stickmen and the church where the scene in the book took place. It was supposed to be something (as I later learned) close to a storyboard or a plan for a film. I don’t even know how I got the idea of making an adaptation of a book, but I guess, I couldn’t accept that there are so many moving and important stories not to be told.
Also, I always really liked writing. I loved the feeling that you can always go and hide in your own head and live in your alternative stories instead of the real ones. This really saved me from falling asleep in school and other boring places.
When I was sixteen or seventeen I was participating in a literature contest for school students, where acclaimed Lithuanian writers were giving teenagers feedback on their works. One writer told me a comment that was supposed to be a critique: “It’s kind of okay, but your writing is too plain. It looks like a screenplay for a film”.
Tell us about Summer Survivors. Where did the idea come from?
MK: After graduation, I was working on another project that I thought will be my debut, but then I earned some life experiences, which later became the story of this film. I knew so strongly that I have to make this film and I wanted to make it straight away. I started writing a script to share my feelings and thoughts, as I myself at a certain time needed to watch a film like this.
To be honest, I think that also one of the reasons I felt I need to make Summer Survivors was because I couldn’t accept that such a scary experience can be given to you for nothing. I had to create my own meaning to that.
A large part of this movie is spent in a car, what was it like filming in such a small space?
MK: It was really fun. Our main actors and DOP were in the car with myself and our sound director in the trunk. It wasn’t very comfortable as there wasn’t a lot of space, but I loved that it was our small world where I really felt like we were IN the film.
The hardest thing was to give actors feedback from the trunk of a car. I asked them: “guys, don’t look at me — you will lose any respect left for me” because most of the time I was half sitting-half lying with some things on top of me and it really looked funny.
What are you hoping people take away from the film about the different forms of mental illness you portrayed?
MK: I wanted to talk about mental health issues openly and honestly because I believe we need that in order to make the stigma disappear. I wanted this film to give people comfort and remind them that they are not alone in the battle they are fighting.
It was important for me to portray our characters like simple people, not someone with a particular diagnosis. All people are different, it doesn’t matter if they have the same diagnoses. I tried to avoid both stigmatization and romanticization of the disorders my characters have. I wanted the audience to look at them and think of their friends, family or themselves.
Can you tell us about some/all of the other amazing women who worked on this film?
MK: There are many! And I am very happy about that, I will mention a few.
Producer Marija Razgute, who is young, strong and a respected producer in Lithuania already. She is raising two really cool daughters while working on different short and feature film projects all the time as well as curating a Lithuanian short films agency, organizing a short film festival and Baltic pitching forum.
Co-producer Klementina Remeikaite and I grew up together as filmmakers. We’ve studied and worked together since our first year of school. She’s rocking with short films she’s producing, presenting them in Venice, Locarno, etc. She is always a big support on set as a colleague and outside the set as a friend.
My beloved actresses Indre Patkauskaite and Gelmine Glemzaite, who worked so professionally and passionately. They believed in this project a lot and I felt a strong connection and support from them along the film. It was so beautiful to watch how they were supporting each other and the third of their gang — Paulius. All actors created characters that I fell in love with even more than when I wrote them on paper.
Also, Fausta Naujale, the film’s costume designer, who managed to read my mind and create exactly what I wanted from few hints or jokes I would give her.
Tell us about why you are a feminist and why it’s important to your filmmaking.
MK: I can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t be a feminist- female or male. I think it’s obvious that we need to respect equality and fight for it.
It’s important for my filmmaking because I am thinking about the representation of women while writing and directing all the time since I always felt how strongly films influence us. How I was influenced by films when I watched them as a kid and teen- I always wanted to be what I saw on the screen (although dreams about becoming a secret agent and hitman died later on). And I want girls and women to see as many different female portraits as possible — strong, cool, romantic, ambitious, aggressive, silly, ugly, pretty or whatever.
Who are your favourite women working in the film industry?
MK: The directors that I love — Sofia Coppola, Andrea Arnolds, Agnes Varda, Lynn Ramsey, Natalya Meschaninova, Mia Hansen — Love. My friends and colleagues from Lithuania that I admire — Kamile Milašiūtė, Marija Stonytė, Austeja Urbaite, Klaudija Matvejavaite and many more.
What’s the best advice about filmmaking you’ve ever received?
MK: While filming Summer Survivors, at one moment I felt really upset, because of the difficult topic and the scenes that we were shooting in the hospital. Cinematographer Laurynas Bareisa told me: maybe you should look at things through the viewfinder — don’t look around, just watch exactly what you can see through the viewfinder and it will be easier. And I don’t think it was advice about filmmaking, rather about life but I do remember it from time to time when things get hard. Just look through an imaginary or real viewfinder — do what you have to do not looking around. It’s like when you are watching a scary film and when it’s too scary for you, you want to exit a full screen.
What are you working on now/next?
MK: At the moment I am working on two projects as a scriptwriter. I am co-writing a script with director Andrius Blazevicius and my sister Tekle Kavtaradze. It’s our second project, the first was the film The Saint (Also produced by Marija Razgutė in 2016). The other project I am working on as a screenwriter is a horror feature film with director Jonas Trukanas.
Next, I will start working on a script for my second feature. However, at the moment I have about 5 ideas and I have to check which one will win a battle in my head.
What is your favourite nonsense tchotchke that you own?
MK: I have lots of them… A James Dean painting that is actually a mirror. You look at James Dean, but you see yourself. A friend gave it to me this Christmas.
Also, a magic coin that my mom’s friend gave to me — brings luck (really). I couldn’t find it today and got really upset.
If you had one extra hour of free time a day, how would you use it?
MK: I would use it for doing absolutely nothing — lying on bed, looking at the ceiling.
Finally, recommend one #MUFFApproved film for our blog readers!
MK: Summer 1993 by Carla Simon. It’s really moving and it has a really strong character of a girl who is about 6 years old and her character is so colourful and rich — unlike anyone we are used to seeing on screen. She is angry and very sad. And I believed every minute of it.
As I was answering these questions I also remembered a film that I loved that also deals with mental illness — I smile back, I loved the beautifully portrayed female character created by Sarah Silverman, who is so imperfect and real.
Follow Marija Kavtaradze on Instagram.
*This post was originally featured on The MUFF Society.*
