…I’ve always been interested in challenging the viewer, to expose them to a certain level of discomfort or to subject matter that might not be pleasant. People naturally tend to dismiss or reject issues that are upsetting or too close to home.
As a part of our series about “Filmmakers Making A Social Impact” I had the pleasure of interviewing Olmo Omerzu.
Olmo Omerzu was born in 1984 in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia [now Slovenia]. He is a director and writer, known for Family Film (2015), Winter Flies (2018) and The Last Day of Patriarchy (2021).
Born in Ljubljana, was formerly part of the editorial board of the Slovenian comic stripburger before starting his studies at FAMU in Prague in 2004. He has directed several short films © trages but it is with The Second Act, a 40-minute film, several times awarded, that he really made himself known.
His first feature film, A Night Too Young, selected at the Berlin Forum in 2012, also highly acclaimed, was also his graduation film.
Thank you so much for doing this interview with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit. Can you share your “backstory” that brought you to this career?
I was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia. I have loved film since childhood when I often spent days after school alone in the cinema. There were few children my age in the neighbourhood where I grew up, so my adventures were more of inner nature and mostly related to watching movies. After high school, I started to feel cramped in a small city like Ljubljana. I successfully passed the entrance exams at the Prague FAMU, which is one of the most respected film schools in the world, and then moved to the Czech Republic. I got the opportunity to make short films at school. Some of them have been successful at festivals. These were followed by my graduation feature film, A Night Too Young, which premiered at the 2012 Berlinale and opened the door to the world of the film industry for me.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your filmmaking career?
For me, making films is a complicated job, to which I completely dedicate myself. Interesting anecdotes often unfold from the moment something goes wrong on the set — that’s when I experience this necessary evil, as a challenge that must be solved as soon as possible. I myself am often surprised when I listen to funny anecdotes from our shooting because I did not experience them as funny at the time but only as annoying obstacles to achieving my goal.
Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?
While filming Winter Flies, I changed my work routine a bit. The main characters in the script are Mara and Heduš, both children, who experience adventures in a stolen car which they drive through the winter Czech landscape. When I discovered Tomáš Mrvik and Jan Uher during the casting, everything changed. I found that the boys were much more interesting than the characters in the script and that it would be a shame not to find a way to imprint their personalities in the film. This was followed by acting rehearsals based on their real-life stories and experiences that influenced them. Much of this has crept into the film itself through improvisation. The boys played their roles perfectly. And I was extremely happy that they got a lot of rave reviews and awards.
Which people in history inspire you the most? Why?
That’s a tough one. I think I’ve been more inspired by work created by people rather than by big names. But I was lucky to have the opportunity to meet a few authors whose work I adore and who were truly inspiring and did not disappoint my expectations.
For example, during a period in high school, I passionately read the poetry of Tomaž Šalamun who lived in the same neighbourhood where I grew up. It took us a few years to get to know each other. Later, while studying at FAMU, I was extremely lucky that my mentor was the iconic late director Věra Chytilová whose work I highly respect.
Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview, how are you using your success to bring goodness to the world? Can you share with us the meaningful or exciting social impact causes you are working on right now?
Lately, I’ve been trying to consider the impact of films on viewers. Movies can still wield some social power and change views across society. Sometimes it seems that filmmakers present largely safe views that serve to convince the convinced instead of opening up a public debate. I’ve always been interested in challenging the viewer, to expose them to a certain level of discomfort or to subject matter that might not be pleasant. People naturally tend to dismiss or reject issues that are upsetting or too close to home.
I’m always happy when a movie achieves a certain kind of ambivalence that triggers a lively discussion after the screening. I believe that my latest short film The Last Day of Patriarchy has this exact quality. Post-screening Q&A’s for this movie that announces its main theme in its title are always very interesting.
Many of us have ideas, dreams, and passions, but never manifest it. But you did. Was there an “Aha Moment” that made you decide that you were actually going to step up and take action for this cause? What was that final trigger?
The fact that I started to deal with more socially engaged topics in films, I think, is quite a thing for me in recent years. By the age of 30, I perceived myself as a rather non-political person. Also in the movies, I dealt with topics that weren’t so much focused on the “here and now”. To some extent, I still believe that the medium of documentary filmmaking is much more convenient for this. But still something has shifted — and I can’t really pinpoint one key moment that caused the shift — and then I found myself working on three different projects that have a clear socially critical stance. In my last two films, the short The Last Day of Patriarchy and the feature film Bird Atlas, that critically dissect the role of patriarchy in today’s society, I really tried to ask myself what I found so personal in a topic that is so often part of social discourse today. And to me, the personal hook is that challenging patriarchy means to challenge our relationship to the generation of our fathers. I always need to find this personal aspect in the topics I tackle.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
It’s not really up to me to say if or what kind of impact my movies had on people. But when I worked on films with a child or teenage protagonists, I might have discovered a future actor or two, and hopefully helped them start a promising acting career. But a funny thing happened several years ago. A young woman called to request a copy of one of my movies she’d seen because she wanted to play it for her boyfriend. It turns out she thought one of the characters in the movie was a complete idiot and she wanted to see if her boyfriend would recognise his own behaviour in the movie as a last-ditch effort before breaking up with him.
Are there three things that individuals, society or the government can do to support you in this effort?
Three things: try to be as open as possible to all people of different views. Do not avoid unpleasant and unpopular topics. Deal with them through patient dialogue.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
In some ways, FAMU felt extremely progressive and undogmatic when it comes to training and approach to film. Often it was at odds with established practice. Later I had to go back to actual books again to catch up on traditional filmmaking facts and so on. If I had to make a list, I wish somebody gave me more basic rules … But anyway, I believe most people learn most jobs by actually doing them, especially making movies, so no complaints.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
I absolutely support people who are not afraid to be active citizens, who are not just self-centered and are able to help and see the bigger picture of the problem. We humans are not the centre of the world, not everything revolves around us, no matter how worn out it may sound.
We are very blessed that many other Social Impact Heroes read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would like to collaborate with, and why? He or she might see this. 🙂
Being a director from a smaller European country, I am often jealous of how many great actors there are in America. Sometimes I find myself writing a screenplay with a particular Czech actor in mind and then I cringe when I realise that it’s likely that the actor will not have time to participate in the project and that I absolutely don’t know who would replace him. I don’t think that would be the case in the US. If you had asked me a few years ago, I would have said with the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Can you please give us your favourite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I don’t know the exact Life Lesson Quote…but lately I’ve been thinking a lot that as a child and then later in school, I took all too many things deadly seriously, with an outsized sense of responsibility that kept me from working for a long time. I had to learn to be consistently superficial from time to time, which can be liberating and necessary for being able to enjoy your work. Sometimes, through inconsistency, a coincidence creeps in to enliven the scene you are shooting.
How can our readers follow you online?
I’m on Instagram under my name. But basically, I’m not too big a fan of social media.
This was great, thank you so much for sharing your story and doing this with us. We wish you continued success!
Filmmakers Making A Social Impact: Why & How Director Olmo Omerzu Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.