Circle: An Interview with Natalie Kerman

Please tell us about the projects you worked on before making ‘Circle’. How did you start, and how did you learn to make films?

I studied film and theater at the Drama Centre in Gothenburg/Sweden in 1996 and worked as an actress for a few years in Sweden. 

I moved to Madrid/Spain in 2005 and since I couldn’t speak Spanish well, I couldn’t work as an actress, so I decided to put myself behind the camera and work as a director. I have to say, I really loved it and I found out this is my passion and this is why I’m here. 

I have done some short movies like “Her eyes”, “The melody”, “This shall pass too”, “A sunny day”, which have been selected and won in national and international festivals. 

I have also done a pilot for a TV series named Plot Point. 

Tell us about ‘Circle’. How do you describe it? 

Circle is about life. We all lie, some people more, some people less, but we lie because we don’t want to disappoint the person who we love. We don’t want to hurt other people. Sometimes just to keep everyone happy we lie. We lie to ourselves too, for not seeing the reality. We want to escape and hide ourselves behind lies. But as we all know, soon or later the truth will always prevail.

Please tell us about your favorite filmmakers.

I have to say Wong kar Wai. The movie “In the mood for love” is one of my favorite movies. but also Takeshi Kitano “Dolls”, Kioshy Kurosawa “Tokyo sonata”, Majid Majidi “Children of heaven”, “The color of paradise”, Nadine Labak “Capernaum”, “Caramel” Christian Pezold “Phoenix”, “Transit”, Kore-eda Hirokazu “Shoplifters”, “Nobody knows”, “Still walking”. And many more :)

Director Natalie Kerman

If you were given a good budget, what would be your ideal project?

I’d like to do my first feature film named “The sky in shadows”. It’s about a blind born boy whose dream is to become a painter but living with a drug-addict father makes everything hard for him. 

Describe how you would ensure that production is on schedule. What steps would you take?

First of all, to do a production, it doesn't matter if it’s low budget or big one you must have the money first, a contract and then a deadline. 

What was the hardest part of making ‘Circle’.

I have to be honest, the hardest part of this project was when my sound technician didn’t do the post-production of the audio as he promised. So I had to search for another one.

If possible, tell us about your next work. What plans do you have for your future work?

I keep trying to do my feature film even though I know it is hard. Meanwhile I’d like to go on doing my short movies, inspired by Persian poets like Omar Khayyam, Rumi, Hafiz and Sa’di.