00:00Where did this idea come from? Because it's so much fun. It's over the top. It goes everywhere.
00:09Yeah, that was in tension from the beginning. But funny enough, it came from real life,
00:15which is kind of the, because sometimes life is crazier than any feature you can come up with.
00:21And it's all started from like 10 years ago. My wife and I, we rented an apartment in a big
00:28like 16th floor building. And we moved in. And in a week, we understood that like there is no people
00:35under 65, just like we are. And most of them like ladies, lonely ladies. And then like I started to
00:43do reconstruction in the kitchen and I moved kitchen cabinet and I found a hole in the wall
00:48that was leading to my neighbor's room and his kitchen cabinet. And we started to have this
00:54running joke that, oh shit, okay, this is a cult. And they probably like one night,
00:59I will wake up and they will come for after us through this hole. And then like, it's just like
01:05stayed as an idea. And I think I rewatched at some point Rosemary's Baby. And I rewatched Rosemary's
01:12Baby. I'm like, wait a second. I literally lived in the same building. And I like, I know what it
01:18feels when somebody can like show up. And that's how they like scraped, like appeared.
01:25Wow. That's really cool. I love that. You know, how long did it take you to come up with this
01:32script? Because there's so much genre bending in there as well. Like when it comes to dialogue,
01:38how long it feels, but also camera angles and camera movements and everything, the choreography.
01:46Oh, yeah. But I think it's like just how my brain operates. I am a big movie geek. And I
01:53watched a
01:54lot of movies through my entire life. So I have this kind of library of references in my head and
02:00the
02:00moments I love a lot. And I kind of use them as inspiration. And I take some bits and pieces
02:07and I
02:07like redo it. And that's why this whole like movie feels like a blanket stitched together from like
02:13a little bit of Spaghetti Western, a little bit of anime, a little bit of like horrors and action
02:19movies and everything. And it's just main challenge for like filmmaker in this case to stitch it all
02:26together well enough. So it feels like one solid piece, not like kind of not making it falling apart.
02:31But yeah. And so and then it's just like, you know, classic script writing team took like a year
02:37or so and yeah. And then the rich people, huh? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So I know we
02:46see a rise in
02:47social commentary on rich people. What made you want to introduce that? It's not only rich people,
02:55I think it's like kind of common thing about people with power, and like how they can abuse the power
03:03and resources and money and how they can exploit people without any power. And the way how I understood
03:12like both of my previous movies about families. And I use families as a metaphor for like society,
03:19because it's like, you know, you have four or five characters. And it's so easy to kind of squeeze
03:24the country to like one family, basically, and like talk through archetypes. So and in this case,
03:31when I started to dig deeper into like cults and history of the cults and how the cults operate,
03:37how they find like broken people in the darkest moment of their lives, they lure them in. And then
03:44they just basically abuse them and cut the connections from the outer world and feed them with propaganda
03:52and keep them inside and just like drain them. I understand like it's kind of also very symbolic
04:01and very clear. And it's exactly how basically everything works. And it's okay, I kind of I can
04:06tell a story through the point just like about the cult and make it fun, but also make it so
04:13like
04:13clear and familiar. And I think everyone faced like kind of that in the real life.
04:20Yeah. And then bring in Zazie Beetz to cut off the head. I mean, isn't she amazing?
04:27She is unbelievable. She is, I think my biggest luck on this project. And it's all happened thanks to her
04:37and her unbelievable energy and trust and sense of humor. And it was extremely challenging movie in
04:47terms of physicality. And it was very hard to make. And she trained for four months before we
04:53started shooting. She came once months before to Cape Town where we were shooting and she started to
04:57rehearse each single fight with our stunt team, like a dance. And then basically you saw the movie,
05:05you know, she's in every single shot of it. So she didn't have like a single day off. She worked
05:10so
05:10hard. And I mean, it was just like pure joy and excitement. And also, you know, for me, I like,
05:18I wrote this great with Alex Litviak. And we discussed a lot of the character and it sits in your
05:22head.
05:23And it's like, imagine like some something like from your imagination. And then I remember I like
05:29talked to Zassi like two times, I think. And immediately my like character in my head was
05:36switched with her. And from that moment, I like just saw her and I felt like this is Asia. And
05:41I
05:41couldn't imagine anybody else. And she like fully did it. And I really hope that she will join this
05:49pantheon of amazing action kick has like heroes. Well, you definitely put her maybe on top of that
05:57list. Thank you. Because she kicks ass. But I mean, you have an amazing ensemble anyway,
06:04when you saw that with Patricia and Mahala and Tom and everybody, you know, when that came to life in
06:10front of your camera, what kind of feeling went through you? I mean, happiness. And of course,
06:16it was just like joy. And I was a little bit afraid because you never know. It's like they
06:22all Hollywood veterans. They like, you know, I grew up watching them in the movies. But then
06:28you kind of go to set and you understand that actually work with them much easier than with
06:32anyone else. Because they're so like top tier professionals. You just like, it's so easy for
06:39you as a filmmaker to work because they give you much more than you can even expect it and dreamt.
06:43And they like surprise you and they come up with amazing ideas. And they teach you a lot. And it
06:50was, it just was fun. And it's literally this making of this movie was very hard, a lot of intense
06:58work,
06:59but constantly it was so much joy. And you like, it's it's yeah, one of the happiest time of my
07:05life,
07:05I think. I can imagine. And you have an amazing producing team as well. I know that Andy and
07:11Barbara are somewhere in a room next to you right now as well. Yes. What is it like having them
07:17on
07:17board? They know their war as well. They are huge support for like, that's like you, you have producers
07:26who also filmmakers, they know what challenges you go through. They know exactly what it means to be on
07:32that side of the process. So it was nonstop support. It was like, I could call Andy and ask
07:40him just like professional questions. For example, at some point, like Andy, do you remember in it too,
07:45there was a moment when this old lady in an apartment ran towered camera and she grows up
07:50and he's the ceiling. How did you do that? You're like, was it CG or no? I'm like, no, no,
07:54no,
07:54we built the ramp. It was all in camera. We just moved it. And I'm like, oh damn, right. That's
07:58so good.
07:59So it's a such a joy when you like actually work, but you get this access to a like first
08:05like person who made it and he gives you his secrets and knowledge. And no, it was amazing.
08:12It was amazing. And also the fact that people still believe in original movies and support
08:18original stories and like bad shit stories like ours. That's incredible.
08:24One quick last question. What's the power of watching a horror movie?
08:29Oh, I think it's like, it's just the release of any, like all emotions you have. It's like,
08:36it's horror movies, uh, like have, I believe that they have like therapeutic effect. I believe that
08:43it's just like they get to your like animal side that like really hard to release anywhere else except
08:52for cinemas. And so it's kind of, yeah, it just hits you in that emotions and you can have, I
08:59like,
09:00when I watch like good fun horror movie, I really feel physically happy after that. That like, like,
09:08they're like explosion of endorphine. I was terrified. I laughed. I had like all these
09:13mix of emotions that like makes me feel happy.
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