The Flats explores the inhabitants of New Lodge, a housing estate in west Belfast. Through a series of self directed reenactments the residents uncover their ongoing trauma from the troubles. I sat down with director Alessandra Celesia to learn more about her approach.
Flynn Boffo: I understand that you live partly in Belfast.
Alessandra Celesia: 27 years ago I arrived in Belfast. It’s the area where my husband’s family is from, on his dad’s side and it was just before the peace agreement, so at that time I really thought, that’s a new era, it’s finished, there’s no need for another film about the Troubles.
And I thought that for a long, long time, and I kept my promise. I didn’t do another film about the Troubles until I felt like the long term consequences were still there and I also felt that they needed to be captured before it was too late.
FB: That really hit for me, seeing that generational trauma. Although the troubles themselves. happened decades ago now, these people are carrying it with them. I am thinking of how you managed to particularly bring Joe there in the present, that scene with his grandmother was heartbreaking. Just to watch him physically revert back to a child in that moment was quite incredible.
I want to know a bit more about your directorial approach to these reenactments.
AC: It’s something that I hoped could happen. When you make a film with real people, you cannot force things. Sometimes the past is still so present in those flats. So I hoped that we could give them a shape and the shape wasn’t going to be through reenactment. But when you have these kinds of ideas, you have to confront them with the real people that you’re filming.
So we just started one day, I bought a coffin and we decided to give it a go. It was like they had been waiting a long time for that. It was a tool and the whole community came together. My biggest luck was that they’re fantastic actors as well.
Joe took the lead, I sort of said, do you want to tell us how it was? Do you want to direct the others? And it became him directing his biggest moment. It just felt right for him and for me. His real therapist Rita, who reassured me all the way long that it was good for him so it was like a very collaborative process.
FB: It’s like there are three different layers of the past that you’re exploring. One thing I noticed was, the younger Joe he’s,played by Joe’s nephew, is that correct?
AC: No, it’s a boy that lives in the area, it’s just a neighbor. But he looks like Joe there’s a picture from when he was a child that is completely the same.
FB: That’s wild. So in the casting process, when you were casting did you take the people around Joe or did you look around the flats and meet some other people?
AC: I think finding the right people is key. Those flats are full of stories, everyone has stories, very similar stories. But who is to embody the stories, who has the physicality, who has the emotions or the way they express things and the way they can get into it. I knew the world that I wanted for the film. I didn’t want it completely realistic, I knew I wanted something a little bit more then real so that we could give a magnificent aura to these terrible stories and not be, crude and realistic.
Only certain people have that capacity. I can nearly record in my mind the day when the little boy came in the kitchen and I was like, Oh my God, it’s him. Or with Angie, someone said, Oh, you, if you want the real woman from New Lodge, you have to speak with Angie.
FB: I could imagine that these people would be weary of media coming into the flats. Was it a hard space to access?
AC: It took time, I had to go on my tiptoes also there were some that were specialists of the media, like they had told that story so many times that they would be okay on camera. They can tell you the story but I wasn’t interested in those ones.
The ones I was interested in were more secret and it was like a little bit more work to do. Trust is key, I never know how that happens. I think it’s when they feel that you’re honest.
FB: It’s a very beautiful relationship you all developed, are you still in contact?
AC: Yes. Joe is a big friend now. I think when you finish documentaries, there is a phase where you have to be there because you’ve been there for so long. You shared so much, and then if you disappear immediately you leave a big gap. You need an after filming service when you’re there, and after that, sometimes It’s finished and sometimes not. with Joe, we’re still very good friends. He’s been teaching me a lot.
FB: What advice would you give to a young person wanting to make a film today?
AC: My first advice would be to follow an idea that you, really, really want to do, because it’s so hard to bring the whole process to the end. It’s such a long way. It never gets easy, better, not with age or not with many films. Every time you think you’re going to fail or you’re not going to be able to do it. But you have to just stick to it and No matter in which conditions, just bring it to the end.
It’s more important to finish a film than how you got to finish it. Don’t wait too long. Find the right way and finish it. You gotta stick to it.
Interview by Flynn Boffo
The Flats
Sydney Film Festival