TOAD caught up with Amma Asante, director of Belle, to hear more about one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the festival.
Tell us a little bit about Belle, the film that you’re bringing to Abu Dhabi, and the motivation behind producing it
Belle is a period drama set in the 18th century. It’s inspired by a painting that still exists today, of a young woman who we’ve come to know as ‘Belle’, standing next to her white counterpart who is her cousin. It’s the first painting that we know of in Britain that shows a black person and a white person standing together with what looks like equal value in the painting. We then went on to find out that Belle, as an aristocrat in 18th century Britain, was brought up by her great uncle and she has this unusual story in a time where every other black person was practically raised a slave, and she was actually was an aristocrat.
Was there a lot of planning involved to get a project of this magnitude off the ground?
To the best of my knowledge, there hasn’t been a period drama like this made before which has a person of colour with lead character’s status as a heroine. And because it hasn’t really been seen before in such a recognised genre as period drama, you need to take time to make sure you get it right. Obviously we knew that our lead actress had to be brilliant, but she was going to be a rising star rather than an established household name, so when you’re selling a film with a rising star, that’s always quite hard. We found a wonderful actress in Gugu Mbatha-Raw and then surrounded her with big British heavyweights, like Tom Wilkinson, Miranda Richardson, Penelope Wilton and Emily Watson. And as we started to attach a cast, the vision began to take shape. But in the beginning I think the whole concept was a bit too unique and a bit too unusual to people, it took almost four years from when I was introduced to the project for us to get this cast around. It was a hard struggle. But actually most films take six or seven years to get off the ground, it’s not that unusual.
How do you measure recognition of your films? Are you looking to win awards or for big box office numbers?
Well, that is a good question, because I think the answer changes almost daily, even hourly. With (2004’s) A Way Of Life I had no clue that it was going to win the amount of international awards that it did. When I was knee-high in mud filming in South Wales, awards were really the last thing on my mind. I certainly tried to do the same with Belle, I put that completely out of my mind and just concentrated on good performances and telling a wonderful story. A Way Of Life got great critical acclaim, but was very little seen in cinemas. For me, I feel that Belle is such a commercial story, and it’s such a story that could reach out to universal audiences worldwide that I would love for as many people to see this film as possible.
Have you visited Abu Dhabi before, and are you going to make it to the festival this year?
Yes, definitely I’ll be coming this year. I have never visited the UAE before, I’m quite excited. I’ll be coming along with my lead actress, we’ve been emailing about it already and are keen to get over. I hope I get some time to look around and do some sightseeing too.
How difficult is it to get into film directing? Do you need a big budget?
No, I don’t think so. And with the advent of digital cameras, and being able to shoot on a lot of very high quality video now, I do think that it allows people to take matters into their own hands. The great thing about writing is that you don’t need to wait for somebody to sit down and tell you to go ahead, you can just get on with it. And it’s a great idea to just get a bunch of like-minded friends or colleagues together, pick up a camera and just shoot a short movie over a few days or even a weekend. Another way film festivals like this one work well is that a lot of short film festivals are a platform for young and older filmmakers that are making films for the first time. If you have a great short film at a festival it can be an open door into directing that feature that you want to direct. So, I think it is a lot easier than it used to be to get into the industry.
Did you have any inspirations or mentors when you first started?
Yes, I had some great people who inspired me, including Ken Loach I look up to a great deal. I have producers who are a little bit more behind the scenes who have inspired me, and James Schamus, who is a producer and writer himself and studio head as well, which is an unusual combination to be those things, is the first name that comes to mind. He has made all sorts of films, like Crash and Brokeback Mountain – just those slightly edgy films that really do have something to say. And once I had put a foot into the business I realised that I wanted to make films that had something to say as well, even when they were set in beautiful, period worlds like the 17th or 18th century.
Belle will be shown at Emirates Palace on October 25.
