Perspective in Schleife

When and how did you find out that you were competing at Sundance?

Susanne Mann: Due to Corona, our schedule was very delayed last year, as post production took place between Vienna, Berlin, Brussels and Copenhagen. And many festivals relevant to us were either not held at all or only on a small scale. At least we made it onto the "la Quinzaine des Réalisateurs" shortlist in Cannes in 2020. We finished producing the film last year and applied for festivals that will take place in early 2021. I have to admit, I haven't seen the film at Sundance at all. But a few films from our Danish co-producers Snowglobe had already screened there and they had good contacts with one of the senior programmers. He got in touch a short time later and said that "The Human Factors" would definitely be there. We could hardly believe it and celebrated for a while.

Martin Rehbock: You sent me the message at 9.18 pm and I almost fell off my chair. (laughs)

Susanne Mann: It's great that Sundance has been planning an online edition for many months and has put an incredible amount of work into the festival. That gives us a good feeling.

Martin Rehbock: A lot is also being done for the filmmakers - they are trying to connect everyone digitally.

And how can festival-goers see your film?

Susanne Mann: There is a fixed online timeslot on the second evening of the festival (29 January) with a Q&A afterwards, where we will answer questions in the chat. As Executive Producers, we have received a small contingent of online tickets, so up to 5000 people can watch the film in total. There will then be a repeat screening in the course of the festival. For exploitation reasons, however, we have decided to limit the screening to the US market.

How did the collaboration with Ronny Trocker come about?

Susanne Mann: At the time, Ronny was looking for a production company from Berlin for his film "The Hermits". Since Ronny and Martin knew each other, Martin (who wasn't yet a shareholder of Zischlermann at the time, editor's note) sent him to us - actually so that we could recommend a few companies from the capital to him. However, I realised very quickly that I would love to do the project myself after meeting Ronny for the first time. He has a very unique style and knows exactly why he is touching a material. What's more, he can both write and direct - and is just a very pleasant guy. In short: all arrows pointed to Ronny. (laughs) And so Paul Zischler and I produced his first feature film with our company Zischlermann, which premiered in Venice in 2016 and went on to do very well. Afterwards, we spoke directly about his next project: Human Factors.

What appealed to you about the material?

Susanne Mann: Ronny is the father of two children and an interesting co-production himself: he comes from South Tyrol, lived in Berlin for a long time, studied in Argentina and has now been living in Brussels with his Swiss girlfriend for 13 years. At some point, he began to think about the communication and miscommunication that takes place within a family. And these personal questions on his part also interested me. All of this against the background that we are exposed to a flood of over-information these days and everyone takes in, filters and perceives the information differently.

Martin Rehbock: And he has found a very clear structure for these questions in the film by telling the story from several perspectives in a loop. The puzzle is put together piece by piece. You first have to understand that you are in a loop. As a viewer, this makes you very attentive and you literally see things with different eyes. I really liked that about the script.

A large part of the film was shot in Hamburg, although a lot of the action actually takes place in Belgium. How did this come about and where did you shoot the film?

Susanne Mann: The film was actually supposed to be shot in Belgium as a Belgian co-production. However, as the financing in Belgium didn't work out, we had to think a bit "out of the box" and looked at what was possible in Hamburg. For example, the holiday home in the film is in Hamburg Bergstedt and not on the Belgian coast. The couple's agency in the film is located in the Oberhafen district in the "Erste Liebe Studios". The conversion to an agency took around a week. The very present floating lights were the absolute centrepiece of our production designers - and we were also very enthusiastic about the result.

Where exactly is the family's flat? The passing S-Bahn train always catches the eye.

Susanne Mann: Finding the flat was actually not that easy and we only found it in Bogenstraße between Schlump and Hoheluft shortly before filming started. Fittingly, the flat actually belongs to an agency boss and the interior design suited our purposes very well - we only had to change a few things.

Martin Rehbock: The flat should have a very urban feel and thus represent a strong contrast to the holiday home in Belgium. The suburban railway that keeps passing by is another disruptive factor that makes communication between the family members more difficult. Of course, we also filmed in Belgium. For example, the beach scenes, the woods and also the party house where the daughter is one evening were filmed there.

In one scene in front of the agency, it's raining heavily. Did the Hamburg weather play into your hands or did you have to help out?

Susanne Mann: We actually had to help with that (laughs). But otherwise we were pretty lucky with the weather in Hamburg.