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Seemingly fun sci-fi movies can also serve as an allegory for a country’s most serious and important issues, such as the surveillance of its citizens. That’s certainly the case for the new drama, What Marielle Knows, which follows a family as they struggle to maintain privacy in their daily lives.
The project serves as the sophomore feature film directorial effort of German filmmaker, Frédéric Hambalek. He also wrote the script for the movie, which stars Julia Jentsch, Felix Kramer, Laeni Geiseler, Mehmet Ateşçi, Sissy Höfferer and Moritz Treuenfels.
What Marielle Knows follows Julia (Jentsch), Tobias (Kramer) and their 11-year-old daughter Marielle (Geiseler), who seem seem like the perfect family. But when the titular pre-teen inexplicably gains the ability to see and hear everything her parents do, that illusion shatters.
As their private indiscretions and personal insecurities become known to their young child, Julia and Tobias’ lives become fully upended. Faced with an impossible future, the couple must try to find a way to reverse Marielle’s newfound gift one way or another.
What Marielle Knows made its North American Premiere in the Viewpoints section of this year’s Tribeca Festival. Hambalek took the time to talk about penning and helming the drama during an exclusive interview over Zoom before its North American premiere at the New York-based festival.
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Q: You wrote the script for the new drama, What Marielle Knows. What was your inspiration in penning the screenplay? Once you came up with the idea for the film, how did you approach scribing the story?
Frédéric Hambalek: Well, the inspiration came many years ago – more than 10 years ago. At the time, I first saw a friend of mine had a baby monitor that had a built-in camera. So you could see the sleeping child.
That was totally brand new at the time. I hadn’t seen that type of monitor before. It felt a bit strange because obviously the child didn’t know they was being watched.
So that led me to these interesting questions about privacy, including if kids have privacy. I also questioned what privacy in a family means, exactly, and what would happen if I turned that around?
So I also asked, “What would happen if the kids had that invisible camera? What would happen if they trained that camera on their parents?”
This was about 10 or 15 years ago. The good thing now is that parents have a rich surveillance system they can unleash on their children. They can track them with GPS and scan their smartphones. They also have room cameras. If they want to, they can monitor their child’s every behavior. So I thought this concept is interesting, which inspired me to write the script.
Q: After you wrote the script, you went on to direct the movie. How did penning the script influence the way you helmed the drama? What was your overall approach to directing the film?
Frédéric Hambalek: It was a very good experience, although we had very little money, so we had to carefully plan it. One of the most important things for me was casting the movie first, and getting the cast right.
Obviously, getting the right Marielle was so important. We had just enough luck to get Laeni Geiseler to play the role. She’s a very talented young actress who gave the film a weight that that otherwise wouldn’t be there, so that was a very important casting decision.
Then to get the right parents, we then talked about how we wanted them to look on screen with Laeni as Marielle.
Q: Speaking about how you wanted What Marielle Knows to look overall, how did you collaborate with your cinematographer, Alexander Griesser, to determine the visual aesthetic of the feature?
Frédéric Hambalek: Yes, Alexander Grisse is my cinematographer. We’ve worked together since my very first short film, and we know each other well. We said that we wanted to create this feeling for the parents in which they are under this burning lens. They feel like there’s somebody looking at them, and they cannot escape this gaze.
So we ended up using a lot of single shots. We used a very intimate style of filmmaking with long lenses that leads to a feeling of somebody is there with them in the room, watching them. The characters then feel like they’re in that moment, which is what we wanted to achieve.
Q: While you were filming on set, how did you create the blocking and the setups for the characters to create the feeling of Marielle watching her parents?
Frédéric Hambalek: Well, I storyboard the whole script in advance, but I didn’t necessarily stick to the storyboard. But storyboarding it gives me the opportunity to think about what I really want to show in a scene. So you come up with solutions in advance, and then hopefully find something better on the set.
One example would be that I wanted Marielle to be a sort of black box for the parents. They couldn’t really read her. They also didn’t know if what she was saying was the truth, or how she got that information.
So we decided to film her in setups that are from below and above, as well as from the side. That way, you couldn’t read her too well as an audience. This is one approach that we took.
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Q: Earlier, you mentioned working with the cast. How did you collaborate with the actors during the shoot to build the characters and story?
Frédéric Hambalek: The three of us met beforehand and read the script, but we didn’t really do a lot of rehearsal. We just read the scenes they had together, and we talked for about an afternoon. We then talked once more after that.
We especially worked with Laeni as Marielle. I didn’t know how much I would have to coach her or work with her before the shoot.
She was so young when we began filming. She had just turned 13 when we began filming.
But I soon realized that she didn’t want to work with me too closely. She instead wanted to prepare by herself. So I simply trusted her and said, “Okay. we’ll see your performance on set.”
Q: What Marielle Knows (had) its North America premiere in the Viewpoints section at this month’s Tribeca Festival. What does it mean to you that the movie screened at the festival?
Frédéric Hambalek: Well, the first screening (was) on June 10. So I (was) very excited to see how American audiences (would) see this film at its North American Premiere. The movie had its World Premiere in Berlin (at the Berlin International Film Festival).
I was quite surprised by the reaction there. The 1,600-seat theater where it screened was very packed with an international audience. I thought the way the audience was willing to read this film as a comedy, and the fact that they were really laughing, was very surprising.
I think the film is funny. But I like films that have the tone where you don’t really know if you should laugh or not, and how you should take it overall. But they were just going with it, which was great.
Q: Speaking about the drama’s overall tone, and having those somewhat comedic moments blended with the more serious issues, how did you with the actors to balance the story’s contrasting elements?
Frédéric Hambalek: Good question. I didn’t really think about that too much. I simply wanted to go for what felt right and truthful in every scene. I wouldn’t tell the actors to make a moment or scene funnier or more serious; I just trying to find the right reactions for each character and the overall story.
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