Making Iphigenia

Being a movie director in such a different country like mine is nothing easy, but still stimulates my imagination. I am not creative when I am comfortable, I need challenges and problems to solve in order to create stories. Since stories themselves are conflicts based on problems. It can be intimidating to work in a different culture but it makes me feel alive. In this story I worked with people that had a totally different style and culture. But is only when you are in a different challenging environment that your true essence comes out and that essence is eventually reflected in your movie. As I kept writing and later directing this story I was realising that this story was clearly about myself. I was the one asking the same questions that the main character was encountering and that vision was been projected on the problems that Jie encounters in that night. I was slowly realising that humans are designed to be weak and make mistakes sometimes and to solve them in a heroic way. Greatness only appears when we face our mistakes and weaknesses. During this movie I went through a trip to my darkest place until I had to face myself totally alone. I always say that the really shooting starts when you are on your own in the movie, and the people around you start being tired and wondering what you are doing. Those hard decisions that you need to take on your own when everybody wants to go home to sleep, that is what means to “direct” a story. It is the story and me. It’s all about choices. You can get them wrong, but greatness comes from taking responsibility for them, just like Jie in this story. Making this film was a dark and amazing experience. I am also feeling sorry for my producers, they are in fact the ones acting in that pervert scene in the aisle… !