NEWS

YDA 2011: Hanna Maria Heidrich

Today we’re catching up with the break-out star of this year’s Young Director Award. Hanna Maria Heidrich’s breathtaking film We Miss You is as bold as it is unexpected and deservedly took the Special Jury Prize, and joint first prize in the European Film School and Branded Short categories. We talk to the ambitious director about her inspiration and go behind the scenes on her winning film.

Congratulations on winning the grand jury prize – what were your first thoughts when you found out your film had won?
Honestly I couldnt believe it. The quality of the shortlisted films this year was very high – making actually winning amazing and a great honour for me.

What was the biggest challenge behind making WE MISS YOU?
Accomplishing a film like “WE MISS YOU” as a film school project was definitely a challenge. We had to get 40 cars as well as 60 extra’s to work for free, to change all the German street sign’s and license plates into American one’s as well as convince a team of 100 people to give up their precious Easter weekend. Add to that trying to direct a deer (which clearly prefered to leave) and all within our small budget of 20,000 Euro. At the time it definitely felt like we tried to make the impossible possible!

Having a talented group of people (Sebastian Bandel, Steffen Wilhelm, Alex Eslam, Jann Döppert, Jill Schwarzer, Benjamin Entrup, Philipp Noll, Sebastian Nozon, Tonio Freitag, Andy Besuch, Christian Heck) around me who were all devoted and bought into my idea was definitely the key to actually carry this through.

The spot has such impact – I think because it’s so magical and unexpected, and also packs an emotional punch! How did you get such a vulnerable, subtle performance from your main actor?
Even though we were dealing with only a 2 minute scene Cornell and me really wanted to bring a deepness and truth into his acting. So we discussed the background of the police officer in great detail including where he came from, his first thought in the morning, his home life as well as his work routine.

In terms of the encounter with the deer we often talked about the feeling of having lost something: a sense of belonging and home.

How did you come up with and develop the idea behind the spot?
We created “WE MISS YOU” for people who were left cold by most environmental campaigns – like us! Sitting behind our laptops, in front of the TV or busy checking our mobiles every day – we have lost contact with nature and the feeling of being part of it.

However I believe that you can only take an active part in environmentalism if you care for nature, if you are in contact with her. The quote “You only protect what you love” best makes the point. So my idea was to make a film in which nature visits the city and calls us back. We wanted to ask a unique question: What if nature misses us?

Instead of raising funds or make anyone feel guilty, the main aim of the campaign is to make the audience view nature as a friend. The core of the campaign is the website www.wemissyou.de, which shows the two minute film “WE MISS YOU”. Following the spot the audience is taken to the website which aims to spread the message “Nature misses us!” via social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

What inspires you?
I’m really interested in peoples’ emotions: What moves them, makes them laugh and what are they suffering from? I’m also intrigued by surreal or mystical elements in real life….this is what makes stories for me.

Apart from that I find my biggest inspirations in music, theatre and photography.

Aside from your YDA-winning film, what piece of work are you proudest of and why?
In 2009 I did a short film called “When The Hurlyburly’s Done” (co-written and directed by Alex Eslam.) We studied theatre directing at Drama Centre London (Central Saint Martins College) during that time and we were really inspired by the basic conflicts of the old dramas: love, fear, revenge etc. Our idea was to translate one of these basic conflicts (How far are you willing to go to save someone you love?) into a story, set in the late Forties.

In this film there are many things I really like: a bittersweet atmosphere, rain scenes, talented young actors and a hero in an emotional dilemma.

What’s the best piece of advice anyone’s ever given you?
I grew up with the motto: “As long as you have courage – everything is going to be alright”. To this day I still think there’s a lot of truth to it.

Having scooped a prize at the YDA, what are your plans for the coming year?
At the moment I’m writing my last filmschool project. It is a television pilot for a sci-fi-mystery-thriller series. The project is a cooperation between our film school and one of the major German TV stations. I really enjoy working on the project as I’ve always wanted to do something in that genre, so I’m able to try many new things out.

The shooting will take place in autumn. This will be my last filmschool film.

For the upcoming year I hope to shoot some interesting projects and in addition, I will develop further my ideas for my first feature film.

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