The sixth of seven (6-7!!!) director interviews Wilson conducted at this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival is with the British, experimental director Ben Rivers, creator of the child-focused, post-apocalyptic exploration Mare’s Nest. Rivers speaks about giving child actors the freedom to be themselves onscreen, receiving Don Delillo’s blessing to stage his play The Word for Snow in the film, and the intention behind his depiction of an adultless world.

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Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

02:03 Interview begins

03:32 Origins of Mare's Nest

06:07 Don Delillo

09:52 Children performing adult routines

13:14 Documentary versus fiction

19:09 Film-within-film

22:06 Moon walks into the past

25:02 Location filming

28:48 SEA filmmakers

31:25 Outro

The fifth of seven director interviews Wilson conducted at this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival is with the thoughtfully impassioned Vladlena Sandu, director of the autobiographical drama Memory. Sandu shares her influences from Tarkovsky to Pajaranov, praises her collaborators on this film, how hypnotherapy helped her make this film, and her strong anti-war convictions.

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Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

02:15 Interview starts

04:03 Making Sandu happen

07:47 Childhood trauma through film

10:25 Personal truth

17:34 Motifs and repetition

23:48 Child actors

30:14 Production design

35:54 Influences: Tarkovsky, Parajanov, Pasolini

40:19 Ending of the film

The fourth of seven director interviews Wilson conducted at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival is with Edwin, director of the fantasy horror Sleep No More. Edwin shares his wide range of influences from Indonesian cinema history and beyond, speaks to his film’s commentary on labor rights, shares his own Deep Cut pick, and… shares a sing-along with Wilson?!

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Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

04:04 Indoneisan horror film history

07:30 Edwin's influences

09:00 Indonesian politics and labor

15:38 Scary scenes

17:57 Casting

20:34 Special effects

23:12 Edwin's future horror

24:39 Edwin's Deep Cut Pick

25:57 Sing-along

The third of seven director interviews Wilson conducted at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival is with the outgoing, reflective Ang Geck Geck, director of the semi-autobiographical childhood drama Ah Girl. Wilson connects with the Singaporean director over the long road to producing Ah Girl, the research with social workers that informed the script, the parts of her own childhood and family that are in the film, and her own Deep Cut Pick.

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Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

02:32 Interview begins

07:03 Research with social workers

10:56 Child actors

15:09 Language

19:55 Personal history

26:00 Ending of the film

27:44 Next film

28:53 Deep Cut Pick

30:05 Outro

The second of seven director interviews Wilson conducted at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival is with the thoughtful, patient Ildikó Enyedi, director of the equally thoughtful and patient Silent Friend. Wilson connects with the Hungarian director over her pensive approach to the natural world, the special place that HKIFF holds in her experience as a filmmaker, and her admiration of star Tony Leung… whose interview with Wilson is also at the end of this episode!

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Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

03:03 - Enyedi interview

04:16 - Working with Tony Leung

06:15 - Enyedi's relationship with trees

07:32 - Academia and science

09:36 - Intercutting timelines

12:25 - Dreams, psychedelics, ecology

15:02 - Production process

17:08 - Casting a tree

19:41 - Other Enyedi films

21:34 - Further explorations

23:13 - Enyedi's Deep Cut

25:48 - Tony Leung Interview

28:13 - Outro

The first of 7 director interviews Wilson conducted at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival. Mary Stephen is a legend in world cinema, having worked as an editor for Éric Rohmer and Ann Hui, and being a celebrated film director in her own right. Wilson chats with Mary about her latest film, the personal documentary PALIMPSEST: THE STORY OF A NAME — its twisty narrative structure, its relationship to memory and family, and her deep ties to the city of Hong Kong. They also dig into her remarkable career as an editor, from switching between film and digital, to her creative collaborations with Rohmer, Ann Hui, and Jessey Tsang, and what she carries from that work into her own filmmaking.

Links:

Trace your roots in our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

03:08 Mary presenting her film to Hong Kong audiences

05:03 Palimpsest's twisty narrative

07:04 How being an editor influenced her filmmaking

08:25 Narration and narrative in the film

10:27 Unused archive footage

12:27 Mary's relationship with her family

15:11 Mary’s relationship with Hong Kong

17:33 Editing: Switching from film to digital

19:20 Working with Eric Rohmer

30:13 Collaborations with Ann Hui and Jessey Tsang

35:41 Working with collaborators as a director herself

38:43 Closing

Let’s, uh, frickin LOOK BACK at Marina De Van’s 2009 psychological thriller / body horror flick, Don’t Look Back. Sophie Marceau turns into Monica Bellucci; meanwhile, Eli tries to piece together the puzzle of De Van’s obscure career, Wilson notices the special effects, and Ben makes comparisons to soap operas.

Links:

Night Vision: Seeing Ourselves Through Dark Moods by Mariana Alessandri

Interviews with & articles on Marina de Van:

• Rotterdam, 2019

• Screenslate, 2022

• Dread Central, 2022

• The French Review, 2010

• The Guardian, 2004

• Pinnland Empire, 2012

Look at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

02:39 Introducing Don't Look Back

05:21 General reactions

15:17 Context

17:55 Comparing with In My Skin

21:59 What the heck is happening in this movie

28:06 Performances

31:34 De Van career arc

33:52 De Van's filmmaking

38:51 Wrapping up De Van... for now?

42:20 Outro

Not for the faint of heart, Marina de Van’s film In My Skin challenges our stomachs, hearts and minds. While Wilson squirms, Ben gets to the heart of why Eli loves sicko mode movies. Can one of the most underrated New French Extremism films secretly be deeply empathetic?

Links:

The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning by Maggie Nelson

“The Goon Squad” by Daniel Kolitz (Harpers Magazine, 2025)

Night Vision: Seeing Ourselves Through Dark Moods by Mariana Alessandri

Interviews with & articles on Marina de Van:

• Rotterdam, 2019

• Screenslate, 2022

• Dread Central, 2022

• The French Review, 2010

• The Guardian, 2004

• Pinnland Empire, 2012

Get in our skin (ew?) at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Intro

00:03:23 Introducing In My Skin

00:06:13 General reactions

00:11:29 Body fascination

00:14:37 Is it horror?

00:18:34 Eli goes sicko mode

00:26:04 Director background

00:32:12 Addiction / self-discovery

00:40:38 Characters

00:46:08 Female horror

00:49:45 Splitscreens and artmaking

00:55:12 The ending

01:00:28 g00ning

01:04:44 Dinner scene

01:12:16 Additional crew on In My Skin

01:16:31 Closing ideas