At twenty-three years of age, Luke Sullivan has a message – filmmaking is about making people feel emotion. A statement that seems to define his latest film, Reflections in the Dust. Luke is on a creative roll that has caused him to collide with the likes of the Australian Government, a Czech police officer and the public at large.
David from Film in Revolt spoke with Luke to discuss his most recent feature and how cinema has shaped his creative zeal for filmmaking.
Where did you find inspiration for your film, Reflections in the Dust?
For Reflections in the Dust, I wanted to explore a very gritty Australian issue in a surreal arthouse way. It explores the issues of toxic masculinity and violence against women, which is a very current and serious issue in this country at the moment. But at the same time, I didn’t want it to be another gritty Australian film grounded in realism; I wanted the film to be different and boundary-pushing. It’s been described as a bogan Australian Samuel Beckett style story. It explores these bogan, gritty, crazy characters but explores it in an arthouse way and that fascinated me. Exploring an idea like that in a completely unique way, from how it’s previously been done in the country, was what really interested me.
You used the medium to explore a far more creative approach as opposed to the traditional depictions?
Yes, exactly. I saw a story like this potentially being a bit too realistic and that it could become too unoriginal and dull in a sense. in order for people to connect to it I had to approach it from a completely different aspect. I wanted to create something unique compared to straightforward film making we see today.
You move between sequences of sterile interviews and extremely emotional plot direction, what was the reasoning behind this?
The interview sequences are actually documentary. I was asking the actors about their real-life experiences that they’d had and then the black and white sequences are all fictional. That’s what I’d scripted. The reason behind it was to push the boundaries and make it more relatable and authentic. Bring in real life experiences and emotions and then shape the fictional events around those. Just to give a sense of realism and authenticity. Those sterile interviews that you spoke about were done on the first day of shooting and, after that, we took like two or three weeks off and I revisited the script. For those sequences that hadn’t been shot I decided to shape the story and explore themes that the actors had actually been through in real life. In a way, we tried to break the fourth wall of the film.
So, you used the actor’s real experiences and confessions to create the plot and story?
All those interviews are the actor’s real-life experiences. They talk about what happened to them and what they remember. Through that, we chose to shape the fictional plot. We always had the general outline and knew what we wanted to explore but we wanted to ask them questions that had relevance to the scene and get their views and memories and incorporate them into the movie. I really like films that are experimental and that’s what we wanted to do.
Going on from your love for experimental films, some of the shots in the movie were visually stunning, something from an experimental film of the 60s. What inspiration did you get for your shot selections?
In shooting the movie, to be honest, I didn’t think of many other films or shots from other films. All I knew I wanted was to make it claustrophobic; have an effect on the audience where they feel like they can’t take a breath. To achieve that what I did was use many close-up shots. You rarely see the world the characters inhabit. In doing that you sacrifice certain things: you sacrifice the ability to exhibit the environment, but as a result it has a far more intimate raw feeling, giving it an amazing quality that I feel makes it more interesting. My thinking behind the shot selections was to make it as uncomfortable as possible and not let the audience take a breath throughout the film.
Speaking about how the audience feels, I read that there was quite a controversy surrounding your film, what issues did the government have with your film? How do you think audiences will react to the film?
Well for one, the government didn’t appreciate the film’s experimental nature, the actual portrayal and subject matter as well as the way we dealt with it, they didn’t respond to it too well. I found that crazy, I couldn’t believe it – the Australian government taking an aversion to it- it was quite a big deal. But with that being said I’ve screened it in film festivals around the world and, honestly, it always had a love-hate reaction; there’s very little middle ground. We world premiered at a film festival in the Czech Republic and we had a sold-out screening for the screening. During the screening, we had people walking out of the theatre, but then also at the end of it, we had so many people come up to us, thanking us and praising the film. One example was a police officer that came up to us, he had been investigating the domestic violence and child abuse in the Czech Republic and he said it was the most authentic interpretation of domestic violence that he had seen. It’s got a love-hate reaction, but it’s got a lot of people that love it and I’m looking forward to this week just to see how the public response to it. My aim as a filmmaker has always been to get a reaction out of people. Whether it be love or hate, I just want people to feel emotion after watching it; I definitely don’t want people coming out of the film thinking that was boring- I would hate that.
In terms of filmmaking your previous endeavours into film, how would you say filming Reflections in the Dust differed?
It was definitely different, a lot of my previous films were shot within a studio. When it came to things like weather and lighting it really changed. In this film we had no lighting whatsoever, we were shooting natural light which was a really big challenge, because you always want to make it look good and things like that. When it comes to the weather, our set actually flooded. That resulted in me having to swim out and retrieve our props and all the things we were filming with. It even resulted in me having to write a storm into the script; and, for a couple of days, we weren’t able to complete the movie. In particular, just the difference between shooting in a studio and in a natural environment was quite jarring, especially since previously I had shot in studios in a film school. It was crazy because we never thought it was going to be that bad. It did have its benefits because it resulted in an overall intensity when filming that I feel you can see in the film that helped.
What would you say were the films that you loved or got you inspired to make films?
When I was young, I used to watch a lot of early 2000s horror movies. I mean my parents let me watch them, so I just watched them. I watched the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake from 2003, a British horror film from 2002, Hostel – that crazy torture horror movie and Wolf Creek.
Hostel, by Eli Roth?
Yeah, films by Eli Roth, Cabin Fever, there’s heaps really. Those were the kinds of films that I was into as a kid, from the age of eight or nine. I’m not sure why, but II found the conventional kids movies as just boring really. I just watched these films really and loved them and they make me want to make films. I knew from a young age I wanted to be a storyteller and I always had an appreciation for stories, especially darker ones. If there’s one thing that those movies did that I try to do, is I try to get a reaction from my audience and get them to feel something.
So that’s what you want to do, get a reaction from people?
Well, yes, because I feel like in order to delineate yourself from other filmmakers you have got to make people feel things. There’s so much stuff being made these days – just pick up a camera and go for it – I think with such an influx of content it’s important to get a reaction. Whether people love or hate it, you’ve got to make people feel something, especially as a young filmmaker you’ve got to make a statement otherwise you run the risk of getting lost in it all. You’ve just got to go for broke and create something completely new.
Reflections in the Dust
(18+)
image: Producer Giovanni De Santolo (left) and director Luke Sullivan (right).