"The Peasants" Poland's candidate for an Oscar | Sean Bobbitt

Hello, I'm David Kennedy and welcome to world talks now We saw those scenes from the Polish film The Peasants nominated for an Oscar. It's attracted more than 70 hundred seven hundred and fifty thousand viewers in just two weeks now the adaptation of Wladyslaw Raymond's 1924 Nobel Prize winning novel is Is literally a moving picture with scenes Animated on top of camera shot images The technique was also used in the Polish filmmakers breakthrough studios previous production Your Vincent the film is a unique picture showing the reality social problems tradition and everyday life of the people of the village of Leipzig in 20 in 19th century Rural Poland now to talk more about this magnificent movie We are joined by Sean Bobbitt the producer of The Peasants Sean Bobbitt, thank you very much for joining me. Thank you for having me now and the the movie and over a hundred painters and four studios worked on the film working over 230,000 hours at the canvas now, how does it feel actually first of all getting to the end of a production like that? You know with with loving Vincent we had sort of a comfortable situation We finished the film and then we had I think four months before the world premiere So we had a little bit of a rest time a little bit of time to sort of like, you know Get our house in order and things like that You know with The Peasants basically, we we premiered the film in in Toronto. The the film wasn't entirely completed We had a festival copy So we were working on it basically up until you know, the Polish premiere So it's you know, it's a lot of things because you're you're finishing up production You're trying to get the marketing plan in place at the same time It was really really hectic and you know, I'm just I'm just really happy That you know despite that the tight time frame that we were actually able to you know Release the film and have a really good result with it Now the the original novel is written by what swab Raymond now And he tore up the first version of the novel. Were there any moments like that that you had during the production? well We we we shot a lot more than we actually use in the film and actually in a few days We're gonna be releasing another music video like the one you saw previously But the music video is actually going to be only scenes that we actually couldn't include in the film because of time So it'll be kind of interesting There's there's a lot of a lot of stuff that we shot from the novel That unfortunately didn't make it into the final cut just because of time So, you know, yeah, there's I think the script went through like 27 iterations Before we got to the final one that we felt comfortable with. Okay. Now and we can see paintings of Yosef Helmoynski Ferdinand Ruschitz or Leon Vichokovsky Repainted now. Can you tell us more about these adaptations? Why these painters and how difficult it was to actually, you know, bring those pictures together with those masters? Yeah, I mean it's you know with loving Vincent I think you know that the paintings were at the core of the film with the peasants We were more imitating a style the realistic style of young Poland so we didn't feel like we needed to Recreate certain paintings and animated life like we did with Vincent But we do have I think it's around 20 paintings that we have recreated some of the most, you know Iconic Polish paintings like, you know, Bobby Lotto You know the the cranes the the the road in the forest and things like that So we have a lot of that but I think that it's not really like the core of the story like it was with loving Vincent it's more sort of a way to bring people into the world of this, you know late 19th century Polish village. Well Exactly. Now the original Novel it had a lot of themes and portrayed Polish life at that time But had themes which were universal and how difficult is bringing that to a modern audience? It was quite easy. Actually, I mean, you know, I and my partner Hugh Welshman, you know, he was British. I'm an American When DK Welshman the director of the film had the idea to do this adaptation Obviously we had to read the novel So, you know, I I read it over the next you know several weeks And it really struck me that a novel that was written over a hundred years ago Had well, first of all, it was quite racy in terms of you know, it was You know, it's it's about like basically a four-way romance You know, there's there's a son and and the most beautiful girl in the village who fall in love She's forced to marry his father, you know, it's it's it's things that you would you would expect more You know in a modern novel than a novel written a hundred years ago But at the at the heart of the story is basically, you know something that's very relevant today life in a small community where there are Expectations on how people are supposed to act and if there's somebody who doesn't act in accordance with those With those rules and suddenly become an outcast So I think you know, it was it was actually quite easy to to bring this novel to life you know, obviously we skipped over some of the you know, really specific Polish elements like there's one of the threads in the novel is about how the the Russian government at the time wanted to build a school but they said there had to be Russian in the school and all the peasants said No, we object to that if they're going to build a school. We want to have Polish in the school So, you know, there are certain things that we had to skip over from the novel just because to make it more Understandable for an international audience, but the core of the story is about basic human emotions It's it's it's you know, it's it's the things that you know, make us who we are indeed and now What kind of challenge was it to read it for the screen now? I mean bearing in mind you've got these people who have Who've read the book and of course among a lot of the people who will be going to see it will be school kids who'll be be Studying it at the moment and what kind of reaction have you had from that kind of audience? I mean the the reaction has been great I mean, it's I think it's like the the second or third highest rate is rated Polish film of all times on film web Yeah, so it's the reaction has been great we've you know, we've already got 25,000 reviews on film web or people who have you know rated the film It's it's but it's a very difficult task because you know The novel is almost a thousand pages and our script has to be a hundred pages So there's a lot that we had to take out from the original novel We wanted to tell the story from the perspective of one of the characters because it's just you know in in filmmaking That's a lot easier. So we chose Jagna as the one person who was sort of a constant There was basically two people who are constant in the entire novel are Jagna and Hanka but I think you know for DK Welshman the director Jagna as Somebody who's a really artistic soul who doesn't really fit into the society I think was a character that she felt she could relate more to and it's it's from her perspective that we tell this Epic story. Well indeed no There's some of the social problems and which are depicted there. So you Jagna and suffered due to her Seeking love and other such characters very strong Female characters in that is that is that important for the modern audience? Yeah, I mean I think you know, especially for DK who was making the film You know, there are previous film was about Vincent van Gogh a Dutch painter and a man And I think you know after spending 10 years of her life trying to tell his story She felt a real need to tell something a story. That was really Polish a beautiful Polish story Although tragic and and a story about women, you know, very strong female characters are in the film, you know good and bad You know the other person I spoke about the other character. I spoke about Hanka You know her arc is is really interesting as well You know, she starts out as a very sort of submissive and obedient wife And grows into this person who basically takes over the entire farm while Berena, you know, the main farmer is ill so I think you know, there's It's a really interesting story to tell and I think it's it's one that was very close to DK's heart you know to be able to tell it and tell us when we can hear in the background some of the the Dancing scenes and tell us more about the music. There was also a little bit of controversy here in Poland about the The music and what was it fully Polish? Was it Bulgarian? Maybe you could say a little bit about that yeah, I mean I Have no idea why but there's been sort of this tendency to say Those aren't you know, 100% original costumes, that's not what the film is about the film is about the story And and the fact that you know, we basically we wanted to tell the story That's that's not like, you know set in one of these historic villages we wanted to tell a story that resonates with the modern audience and to do that we gave elements of historical costumes music everything but giving it a very modern Feeling about it so that young audiences in particular it would resonate with them, right? Okay, and I saw you know, just even looking at those dancing scenes It's the kind of party that you would kind of want to go to is that is that what you mean by that? Yeah, I mean, I think we wanted you know, if you tell a story about you know oppression of women and the situation of women in society and You you set it entirely in something that looks like totally Separated from what we would understand today and people say oh, that's the way it used to be What we wanted to say is yeah, that's the way it used to be but it's like that today as well And that's why we wanted to make it You know have like a really modern like ring to all of the music and the costumes and the dances and everything They're all based they all have elements of traditional Polish, you know, Ella, you know things like elements like we call it costumes and music I think But at the same time they're very relatable. I think we're young and modern audience Yeah the only thing I could brings to mind there is this the scenes in Marie Antoinette where there's Susie sue music going on in the background and it looks like a nightclub, but it's that it's that kind of feel now how do you think the the Academy is going to react of course, and it's a it's it's you know a completely different kind of film different look could they be brave and Nominate it as the and and give it the the best picture prize. I mean, you know, it's It'll definitely stand out on the Academy website So the Academy voters have basically a site that they go to where they can watch all the films are nominated in various categories And so, you know looking through the thumbnails, you'll definitely be able to you know, see the peasants of something that's original and something that's new That's obviously a plus the the downside is is that you know They're comparing this animated film to live-action films in a lot of categories Which is difficult, you know, we've we've had really good success at animated film festivals with Loving Vincent, for example But you know, it's much more difficult I think for a jury that they're giving given say ten films to Evaluate and say which of these is the best and they're given nine apples in one orange And I think that that's the that's that's the the challenge that we face is showing them that you know This is a hundred percent, you know a film. This is a film. That's that's acted. This is a film that had cinematography This is a film that had sound design, you know, all of the elements that go into making a live-action film They're all present in the peasants It's just that we've added this additional layer, which you know brings you draws you into this this peasant village of the late 19th century and certainly is a feast for the eyes and people here in this the studio and In our editorial office who've seen it are going crazy about it and wish you all the best with Further releases of the film and of course fingers crossed for the Oscars. Thank you very much says Sean Sean Bobbitt the producer of the peasants Thank you very much. And That's all we've got time for for the moment on world talks, but we'll be back with more. Thank you