Swiss director Lionel Baer (Stealth, Longwave) has completed the third movement in his comprehensive film quad in relation to Europe with “Continental Drift (South)”. The film, which debuted in Cannes Director’s Week, sees Bayer shift his focus south to Sicily in 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic and deep in the European migrant crisis.
Isabel Carré (“Remember the Beautiful Things,” “Mademoiselle Else”) plays Natalie Adler, who is dispersed to an immigrant camp in Catania, Sicily before a visit from Macron and Merkel to find her feisty son Albert, played by Canadian Tudor Pellerin (“Genesis”). , “My Salinger Year”) against her interests as an activist.
The film, produced by Bandita Films with RTS and sales-handling Les Films du Losange, strikes a balance between political satire and honest drama, with Natalie and Albert pushing and pulling, and magnetism at the edges of the estrangement between them. Europe cleverly serves as a vibrant backdrop and motivational metaphor while pressure builds around parallel narratives.
diverse I spoke with Bayer before the film’s world premiere in Cannes.
“Continental Drift” is the third in a set of four films to make with Europe as the central theme. Can you talk about how this group came to be?
When I started the first movie, it was a movie about my family. My family comes from Poland, and I decided to go there to make a kind of ‘East West’ because Poland had just become part of the European Union in 2006. Then I decided when I was shooting this movie, during the fall of 2005, that I’d probably have to do the same with the other countries in Europe and trying to make a kind of map, an emotional map, of what bound the Europeans together; Not only European institutions or commissions or things like that, but individual stories as well. There is always something to tell us about the way we relate to each other, Europeans.
The relationship between Natalie and Albert broadcaster “Continental Drift”. How did you find these actors and how does their on-screen relationship reflect the inconsistency of the film?
I saw Théodore in a Canadian movie maybe four years ago, and I was amazed at what he did in the movie. Isabelle is a well-known French actress, and I knew her because I saw her on stage and in other films. What we wanted to build together is probably not to be very metaphorical, and to be really honest about their relationship. Then the movie will do the job. The movie will make the metaphors you see. So they played it directly and honestly, which is the relationship between mother and son. They had to be really honest with themselves, with the character of their characters. Then I, as a director, and you, as someone watching the movie, can try to imagine that there might be a message or metaphor in it.
How was the writing process for this movie? How did you find balance with the aspects of drama and comedy?
Well, it was a really long trip. We started working on this movie in 2015. There were a lot of things that happened in politics that forced us to adapt the script every six months. And it was hard to keep the politics in place, not take up too much space in the script, and give too many things to say and do to the characters in the first person. There is a lot to say in the movie, and every character has something to stand for.
Sometimes it gets really complicated in scenarios of having different levels of dialogue, so you’re not always so clever. And to give everyone something funny to say. You want to give the actors some good lines, but sometimes it’s good to be more modest in the dialogue and give space for something else. Laurent was also a director, so it was exciting to work with him. We can immediately think of filmmaking; Not just telling stories, but also imagining the situation and realizing where to put the camera, that kind of thing.
There is a touching scene where Natalie goes out to Catania and experiences the city at night. What is the significance of the story setting in that city?
Catania is a really famous city in southern Sicily, and there is an ancient history to the city. I felt that when she does kind of do Natalie’s work; You are sent to another country, to another city, and you have to live there and sometimes not be attached to it. And sometimes you can feel a little overwhelmed in your own life. Natalie is a little bit like that. She is a little lost in this city, as she is in her own life. So I asked the crew to break free one night, and we went out and just tried to make something in a more documentary style, just to see her a little lost, because it’s all not so clear in her head. She is really a strong person in the movie: she has a position, representing Europe in this part of Italy, but she is a character above all else. And maybe it’s one of the moments in the movie where you can really get a feel for Italy, too.
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