Katalin Varga is a uniquely humane revenge thriller that goes beyond the standard gamut f emotions and creates something that we, as film lovers, can truly get our teeth into. It's out in the UK now and we were lucky enough to catch director Peter Strickland to talk about the film...

MV: You spent your own money in making Katalin Varga, what drives a man to do that?

PS: Just lack of choice really! I was doing this from 1992 onwards and you get to a point where money just falls into your hands, it's not the best way to fall into your hands [Peter's relative left him money in an inheritance], and obviously it's tempting to take the easy route and put the money down on a mortgage but I'd always be thinking 'what if?' And really, you just go crazy each day thinking 'how can I get my work made and get noticed?' and this was like a last shot really. It was a gamble but, what the hell!

MV: It seems to be paying off!

PS: Maybe not financially! But in terms of making films, then yeah.

MV: Was the idea for Katalin Varga something that had been with you for a long time?

PS: Not for so long, no. It was 2003 and I was quite excited to take something that had been done before and, in some ways, was very unoriginal and very traditional and then really manipulate an audience with it. When you recognise certain characters you can quickly be surprised with certain sidetracks and alter perspectives and questions points of views. For me revenge films are usually one-dimensional: it's the filmmaker's judgement, or one point of view, and this confounds all that.

MV: What made you want to confound those traditions in this in a country so far from home, and in a language which you aren't fluent in?

PS: It's not really anything specific about that The subject is so relevant, it's something anyone can relate to. It's not like Guy Ritchie films, which you can't relate to unless you're an East End gangster. All of us can imagine being put in a position of avenging something. But if you really put yourself in that situation you'd probably find something like Katalin where you're faced with counter events. This idea of the bad person being bad all the time is  bit of a nonsense.

MV: The film had a tangible atmosphere to it, were there any influences that informed your choices going into the film?

PS: Atmosphere is that weird thing where you just can't pitch it or write it down, it happens by magic. We were aiming for this and it is a mixture of things, and in hindsight we had this energy - maybe even anger. We were all outsiders, all the actors came from this little town, and this was our little 'fuck you' basically! You can see it in Hilde's eyes sometimes. It's kind of real. But obviously Transylvania has that magic to it, it is a very cinematic place and Mark, the cameraman, knew how to bring these things out. And I think being an outsider in the country could even have helped because you see things that people who live there are too familiar with.

MV: Was it hard to deal with the nuances of character in Hungarian?

PS: I think a lot of it was based on having actors I trusted. If I had lesser people, maybe we would have ventured into very deep water. We would talk about the themes, emotions and so on, but the delivery was kind of intuitive. Especially on Hilde's part. Of all the problems we had, language was the least concerning.

MV: What was the biggest problem then?

PS: Well I can't mention all of them, I don't want to air dirty laundry, there were some fall-outs. And the post-production was pretty unpleasant and took two and a half years. It dragged on and on and we stopped in December 2007 and until December 2008 it was like the film had actually failed at that point. I just couldn't go on anymore. But then you can go from one extreme where the film has totally failed and not even a small film festival in Europe will even pick it up, to this was quite a shock. It took me a while to adjust!

MV: What advice would you give to any aspiring filmmakers out there?

PS: I'd just say don't listen to other people, because so many people told me that this was a disaster waiting to happen. I had some really unpleasant meetings with people in London who would put me down. They'd tell me 'you broke the first rule of filmmaking, don't put your own money in' I even had one guy say to me 'You're not a filmmaker, everyone calls themselves filmmakers these days, with video, you're only a filmmaker if people pay money for your film' and it can really grind you down. You just need to have the resolve. The irony for me was that this very person loved the film later, though he didn't actually recognise me, he didn't know I was the same person! So in some ways you have to laugh, it's just a bit of a pantomime.

MV: So you just stuck to this vision that you wanted to get made then...

PS: Well there was that yeah, but I think don't be afraid to be simple. There's so much pressure to stand out and be a trailblazer, and I think you can also have something that speaks to people, somehow resonates with live. That's cinema at its most effective, when it says something about you and your life, through the characters on screen. Cinema is communication, essentially, not some flash business cards that show off what you do. There is luck involved, but it's true that you can make a film for 100,000 Euros and we were totally outside the system, so I think that's quite encouraging for people out there. Even if it's depressing for some people in the film industry!

MV: OK, so let's move to our final (and favourite) question. If a Movie Vortex opened up and started destroying films, which 5 would you save.

PS: I would choose Straight and Narrow by Tony Conrad and Beverley Conrad. Hmmm, that's one hell of a question. How Much Wood Would A Woodchuck Chuck by Werner Herzog, which is his best one - a documentary on cattle auctioneering in the 70s. What else... I could pick obvious ones like Eraserhead but they're all so overdone already. OK, Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors by Sergei Parajanov, Allures by Jordan Belson...

MV: These are some really interesting films!

PS: I really like it when filmmakers open up other stuff for people, I mean that's how I got into film. People just name-checked stuff and it opened up a whole other door for me! Ok, last film, maybe Overnight - about Troy Duffy - because every filmmaker needs to see that! No. Actually, I'd say Raiders of the Lost Ark, Spielberg. It's faultless pure entertainment.

Words by Michael Edwards

Katalin Varga is out in the UK now, and you can read our review HERE. For more cool stuff like this, check out our interviews page...