Hunt for truth

Giannis Belis in Hunt. Christos Pitharas: 'I started writing a script based on him as a person and some of his actual characteristics'

Christos Pitharas builds on the real life of his non-professional star Giannis Belis for his second fiction feature Hunt. An intense character study, it follows a lonely blacksmith and jewellery maker, called Yannis, as he is pushed to the edge by his volatile neighbour Elias (Vasilis Anastasiou). Elias’ maltreatment of his pet dog means the animal keeps Yannis awake at all hours and when Yannis starts to befriend the animal, it is met with increased animosity from his neighbour. The film is also a study of grief and small town life as Yannis has recently lost his mother and travels to the southern Greek village where she lived on multiple occasions. The film had its world premiere at Thessaloniki Film Festival this autumn and we caught up with Pitharis to chat about building fiction from fact and his approach more generally.

What made you decide to root the film in the life of a real person?

Christos Pitharas: It was a decision based on instinct, in a way. Giannis, is the name of the character but also of the actual person. Giannis is the husband of Eleni, one of my closest friends and I have known him for a few years. He had something in his character and personality as well as his physique, that I found very interesting and intriguing. Then one evening, when I left their home, I started writing a script based on him and some of his actual characteristics: being a hunter and that he works as a blacksmith, making handmade jewelry at home. Then the plot took a narrative, fictional Direction. But I think it was mostly based on something that has to do with instinct rather than logic at least in the beginning.

How did you work with Giannis on it? Given that he is both playing himself, in a way, and someone fictional.

CP:I tried to discover an approach that would result in the desired outcome. And one thing I concluded from the beginning more or less of our working together was that I didn't want to work on the script and the written dialogue and the actual actions, but we needed to somehow discover how he puts himself inside the shoes of the character.

Christos Pitharas Photo: Thessaloniki Film Festival/Studio Aris Rammos

A funny detail is that Giannis, though coming from a totally different background, was somewhat used to in having a camera in front of him constantly, as Eleni, his partner, is an amateur photographer and when they first met she used to take hundreds pictures of him and he got so used to having a red flash in his face that after a point he got some used to it and immune almost, that he paid no attention at all. This was definitely to our advantage.

Giannis doesn't really care about the presence of the camera, he never plays for the camera. Now, concerning the rehearsals, we tried to discover how this person, along with all the other characters, communicated with each other. What do they think, feel and communicate with one another? How do they feel and what is the dynamic between the relationships? And we tried to establish a natural way of communicating that is not necessarily within the script, but it has to do with the relationship of the characters.

And once we had established that, it became easy for them to to place them in any environment that is relevant to the plot. With Giannis, I also used a lot of film references. Giannis comes from a background where his parents were theatre actors in the Sixties and Seventies. So the initial idea that he had in his mind concerning acting was more theatrical. But through film references, once he quite understood and comprehended the acting tone that I was looking for, there came a point that once he got it, he just rolled with it and I had nothing more to do after that other than to just regulate the volume or temperature of the aforementioned acting tone.

So what sort of film references were you using?

Specifically, Tyrannosaur was my main reference to Giannis but we also saw Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Climates and some Romanian films. I believe Romanian cinema is top notch, concerning actor's performances. It is almost as looking people in documentaries.

Also, I remember there was one rehearsal where he came back and he had seen for himself the scenes of Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now. So all of all of these different references and stimuli somehow make the click with his mindset. Once he got it, he just rode away with it - he was excellent.

They say never work with children or animals and you have the dog, Mal, in this film who is really an additional character. You’ve chosen a pit bull type, which are often associated with violence, but he’s a sweetie. So I’m interested in your ‘casting’ but also how you worked with the dog on the set.

CP: Well, first of all, I got quite lucky with casting the dog, because we were looking for some time and we weren't really sure which direction to take. At some point I was having a discussion about filming with Vasilis who plays Elias, who owns the dog. Out of the corner of my eye I caught the figure of a woman who was passing, walking this great looking dog, and I thought he was marvellous. So I went over and talked to her and to cut a long story short, she was the perfect person and he was the perfect dog to have for the film because both of them were very cool and very open to what we were looking for and the dog, Mal, is just a teddy bear.

Mal the dog in Hunt. Christos Pitharas says he was 'the perfect dog to have for the film.. he is just a teddy bear'

Giannis and myself are quite comfortable with dogs - in fact the protagonist of my upcoming film is my dog, Charlie. So we found ways of evoking and using the reactions of the dog. For example, when the dog is trying to find Yannis and Yannis strokes him and stuff like that, the take would always start with Giannis giving Mal a little treat to eat. So the dog, after that, just tries to take some more of that and then in the editing we would cut it in a way that it seems that the dog is trying to get over the fence and go to Giannis. And when the dog, for example, jumps to break the window, what happened was that I noticed that when the [microphone] boom came down close to the dog, it reacted by trying to catch it. So we used closer framing and added it.

There seems to be quite a trend at the moment for these village or small town-set dramas in Greece, where it’s not very sunny, it's a long way from the beach.I know you did documentary work in this area as well so I’m wondering what drew you to this and do you think there’s a reason for this trend?

CP: I don’t know if it’s a trend but it did happen that in the past year several films were made that had these characteristics, short films and feature films and it somewhat coincided that all these films came out together in the same year, in a strange way. But I don't think it's a trend actually. What I do believe though is that the Greek countryside and rural areas do carry very interesting characters and stories and many directors maybe start to look in this direction because they recognise these stories that can unfold in these specific areas.

Concerning myself, the specific village of the film, is where I spent quite a lot of time growing up - summer holidays, Easter and Christmas. So I had a lot of memories and nostalgia for the place and its people and my connection to its nature. So I tried to put all these different elements that relate to me, in the film.

To sort of combine reality with fiction?

CP: Directors, I suppose, always try to narrate stories that feel close to their heart in a way. Nature, the people from my village, dogs in general, notions of loneliness and urban estrangement, are the things that concern me.

Some of the scenes in the village feel docu-real. Were you just shooting them documentary style or were you giving them scenarios to work with?

CP: Somewhat. The privilege that we had is that I knew these people so I was given the freedom and the opportunity to be quite comfortable with them and to take advantage of their time and ask them to do things, where in other situations you would need to gain their trust in order to ask for these things.

Christos Pitharas: 'The Greek countryside and rural areas do carry very interesting characters and stories'

But because they knew me from when I was a little child, it was just, “Crazy little Christos is doing his stuff”. So what we did, is have them sited in groups where they would feel most comfortable to strike up a conversation, gave them very open and loose guides of topics they could talk about and have two cameras rolling for a long time. After a while the villagers were not feeling so self-aware and stopoed noticing the camera and they started having a discussion about real things that concern them.

The sound design is very important to the film as well especially in the psychologically intense opening scene which is quite differently shot.

The sound landscape is of extreme importance. What I’m looking for with sound, specifically in the opening scene where we see Giannis hunting, is not so much to observe what he is doing, but through sound and visual, try to dive into the character's psychology and psychosynthesis. . So, the effort of creating this specific sound design, which steps between natural sounds and soundscape that has to do more with trying to arouse psychological reactions and emotions coupled with these images that are very grainy and blurry and with a lot of hectic movement. It's an attempt I hope is somewhat successful. It’s trying to bring us closer to the mind and the psychological nature of this character. A direct reference I tried to copy or emulate is Philippe Grandrieux’s film Sombre. Sombre was the main reference for the first scene.

And now you’re planning a film with your dog?

CP: Yes, the dog in the new film film has an even bigger role, concerning the narration of the film. Of course, he’s not the main character but he’s right there with the rest of the cast. The theme of loneliness is again a main topic of this next film, which is called Collarbone. It has to do with a middle-aged couple who have two children and they decide that they need to take some time to try and re-evaluate their relationship. The man, along with their dog, goes to an island close by during winter time when there are almost no people there. He has an endoscopic journey and is trying to decide what he wants to do with his life, while rediscovering his love for nature and these small ephemeral moments that he has lost. Until something really tragic happens that changes the tone of the film and the story.

Hunt will be released in Greece next March.