German director Angelina Maccarone recently took some time to speak with AfterEllen.com via email about her latest film, Unveiled, about an Iranian woman who flees to Germany to escape persecution for being a lesbian. Fariba (Jasmine Tabatabai) assumes a male identity in order to gain asylum, and takes a strenuous job at a sauerkraut factory in a rural German town. Soon Fariba’s freedom is in jeopardy again and she must protect her new identity-at the risk of not only deportation but possible rejection by a woman she is falling for.
AfterEllen.com: How long were you writing and developing Unveiled? How did it change and evolve from your original vision to its eventual translation to the screen? Angelina Maccarone: Judith Kaufmann (DP) and I had the first idea for the story in 1998. We worked on the script on and off until 2004, when we finally made the film. The script underwent many serious changes, as characters that were important in the beginning became less so or vanished, and new characters came to life. But the core remained untouched. We wanted to tell Fariba’s story, and in the process of doing so we tried to invent the most precise circumstances to mirror her emotional journey.
AE: You’ve said that you collaborated with Jasmin Tabatabai (who plays Fariba) on reworking the script. What kinds of changes did you two come up with together? AM: In 2002, after working on the script for four years, I sent Jasmin a copy. We met several times to talk about it and she told me her opinion. Since she knows so much more about Iran than we do, her insights were very helpful for Judith and me for our rewriting. Basically the character became more subtle, not as outspoken as she had been. We had a long time of rehearsals as well, which helped to get to the core of the emotions within scenes and sequences of the story.
AE: What was the biggest challenge for you in making this film? In what ways has it been rewarding? AM: The biggest challenge was to tell a story that takes place in very real circumstances of German society. I wanted to be totally exact when it came to political facts to make it a story that matters on this level as well. To have an actress disguise herself as a man is another big challenge. To me Jasmin did a great job and I am especially happy that we succeeded, I think, with creating a “male” character that is not based on typical cliches.
AE: How did you come by the English title and how do you think it frames the film differently than the original title, Fremde Haut? AM: Wolfe, our U.S. distributor, came up with the English title Unveiled. I like it a lot since it touches upon different levels of the story. Fariba does not have to wear the veil anymore when she arrives in Germany but she has to hide her true self behind a male disguise. She longs to get rid of this new veil and at the same time fears to be unveiled as a woman by others.
Fremde Haut could be translated as “a stranger’s skin.” On the one hand it means to wear another person’s personality, and on the other it has an erotic notion to it.
AE: Your film delves deeply into issues of identity, roots and belonging, and what happens when someone loses those things-homeland, culture, gender, name-that seemingly define them. What sparked your interest in exploring these themes; what draws you to them? AM: As you said in your question: I believe that identity is to a great extent defined by where we live, what we do, whom we love, etc. My interest in writing a story about a woman who has to leave all of that behind is to ask: Who are we when all of these self-defining elements are gone? What is at the core of a human being and of being human? This is exactly what we tried to do in the story. So your question is already the answer.
AE: Your film portrays parallel universes of freedom/opportunity and confinement/hopelessness. What did you base these portraits on? AM: I think one of the main problems is our thinking within constricted concepts like polarities. There is good or evil, the “free world” or suppression. I believe the world, the human, is more complex than that. The simple solutions that are suggested by polarities are dangerous. Thinking like “we are good, they are evil” has existed for a long time and justified a lot of horrible things people do to each other. I wanted to show that on either side there are humans. If the “bad guys” are human too they do have a bigger responsibility for their decisions.
AE: I read that you said “The very idea that people somehow have to explain their private life is absurd in itself.” Can you explain what you mean by this, and how it relates to your film? AM: Everything that deviates from what is considered “normal” has to be explained since it is considered a threat. The majority has the power to decide to be “tolerant” or not to be. Heterosexuals never have to explain their difficulties with their own gender. To them it would seem totally ridiculous to write a letter to their parents, explaining why they only love people of the opposite sex.
My first film for German TV was a coming-out comedy dealing with the absurdity of this act. In Unveiled there are several standards and majorities that define what is “normal”: being German instead of a “stranger,” being a “real man” instead of a “sissy,” being heterosexual instead of a “homo.”
AE: What made you decide to make your protagonist Iranian? AM: Iran is one of four countries in the world where homosexuality stands under death penalty. It is at the same time a non-European country with a very “modern” standard of living and allows the main character to be an educated middle-class person form a huge city like Teheran whose expectations and visions of the “free world” are turned upside down in rural Germany.
AE: Did you learn more about asylum seeking in Germany through making this film? Have you gotten feedback about the film from any women who have sought asylum in Germany for similar reasons?
AM: Yes, I learned a lot about it. I had read a lot about it beforehand. But talking to people and actually being in a fugitive camp within Germany or visiting “fugitive homes” was a different experience. Feedback from people who feel that their story of asylum seeking in Germany is told in the film is very touching. It happened several times.AE: I’ve read one criticism that you downplayed the moment when Fariba assumes Siamak’s identity as well as the moment when Anne learns Fariba’s “true” identity. To me there is much to be said about keeping those moments understated. What is your response? AM: Of course, it was a conscious decision to not show these moments as dramatic plot points with a lot of music and other cinematographic devices. One reason is that I wanted to avoid the cliche of such scenes. They always stay on the surface and put a distance between the character and the spectator by watching from the outside. To be with Fariba when she has to succeed in her Siamak identity or fails allows us to be emotionally closer to her. Anne falls in love with Siamak/Fariba. Her hesitation due to the fact that she learns she actually fell in love with a woman seems petty when she is faced with the threat of Fariba’s deportation.
AE: Have you been writing lyrics longer than you’ve been writing screenplays or other fiction? What do you get out of each of the different forms?
AM: I have been writing lyrics for songs since I was 14 years old. Writing other fiction was later. Writing screenplays started in 1992. I like the different forms. A screenplay is much more complex on the one hand. You have to create a whole world. But in lyrics, on the other hand, you have to be down to the point with the one emotion you explore.AE: What have the challenges been in making your new film, Verfolgt (Hounded), and what further challenges do you anticipate? AM: My new film Verfolgt is the first one that i did not write. It is a challenge to make the story my own story in order to tell it from the inside. Susanne Billig’s script is emotionally very deep. It is a challenge to find an adequate visual form and to explore the emotional depth with the actors. The story is a psychodrama about a fifty-year-old woman who starts an S/M affair with a young boy. It deals with vulnerability. The woman gets in touch with her own pain by giving pain to the boy. To avoid voyeurism and yet concentrate on their sexual journey was an exciting experience for me as a director. I want to grow with my work and challenge myself to cross borders and expand my restrictions.
AE: Is there a film that you have yet to make that you dream of someday making? AM: There are several projects that I wish to make. Next year I would like to make a road movie I have been working on for 10 years now. Susanne Billig wrote another wonderful script that I hopefully will direct in 2007. It is a psychological thriller set in Northern Scandinavia. There is an absurd pop opera about an aging diva I am writing. There I could connect my songwriting with filmmaking. But there is one actress I adore and with whom I would really like to work: Gena Rowlands.
