There were a lot of cords, wire ropes and pulleys that all had to be coordinated. There were days when I and the team felt like puppet masters. The doors, windows, drawers and lights that worked independently were all manually directed and controlled during the shoot. The biggest challenge was to create the "autonomy" of the house on set. It was already equipped with a lot of technology. The house offered almost everything we needed for the story in terms of its construction and interior design. What challenges did the house offer as a filming location? But then the final house captivated me from the first visit. So we had many aspects that we had to bring together. The house also had to be logistically convenient for the shoot.
Unfortunately, there were not many houses that were suitable for our film, as they also had to do justice to a near-future aspect. I wanted to visualise the exile, the seclusion and the loneliness of the house. This connection was also very important for me and the film. In the short story, the house is actually on an island with a direct view of the sea. It was a long journey through northern Europe. I was very pleased that he was already very interested on the basis of the short story and then very quickly agreed to do it after reading the first draft of the script. But then the idea came up that Tobias Moretti would be the ideal cast and I really wanted to work with him anyway. We had a classic casting for the roles of the married couple. When was it decided that Tobias Moretti would take the lead role? It reduces the people further and further to the essence of themselves, until they finally face each other naked as what they are inside. The house takes control of the other two characters. It captivates - first in a positive, then in a frighteningly literal sense. The supposed place of retreat, the holiday home, is actually an observer, a holder of power and a controller. The house had to be narrated and treated as a character. For me, the house is a very serious character in its own right. How do you adapt a near-future story realistically? For me there were three roles carrying this film: a man, a woman and the house. How did you proceed in adapting the story?
This is not an alien world that one can look at from a distance. For this reason, it was important to me to give this film its very own visuality and atmosphere, but at the same time to make it tangibly and comprehensibly close to the current world and the everyday life of the viewer. Not least because of the Corona crisis, digitalisation has been given an immense boost, which needs to be critically examined. The viewer should experience the critical consequences of the ever more absolute digitalisation of our everyday lives through the evocation of an oppressive atmosphere.
I wanted to tell the story as close to the couple as possible. It was the actual and socio-critical theme told from the exciting and conflict-laden perspective of a married couple that interested me. Rick Ostermann: I was fascinated by the complexity of the story. Cineuropa: What fascinated you most about the short story by Dirk Kurbjuweit?