---

BY MAKI SOMOSOT

In print | Published April 8, 2010

On Friday, Apr. 2, The Phoenix’s Maki Somosot interviewed up-and-coming film director Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo. Wojtowicz-Vosloo is the director of “After.Life,” an exploration of the thin line between life and death, and what it means to be alive. This is her first feature film.

Maki Somosot: How did you come up with the concept for “After.Life”? How did you develop the concept into a full-fledged film?

Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo: Since I was a little girl, I had this fear of death, but also this strange curiosity about it. My father died when I was 10 years old, and that left a very huge impact on me. Since then, I was always wondering what happens after you die — if there is a transitional period. I’ve always wondered if there is an afterlife.

MS: You mention a childhood fascination with death. Could you talk about how that fed into your brainstorming process for the film?

AWV: Death is still the biggest taboo. We all wonder, every religion, every philosophy, and science in general — we all try to find answers. We don’t know, until we’re basically lying on a slab in a funeral home. That’s how the idea for “After.Life” started. I started out with this image of young woman lying on a slab, and this mortician who’s calmly planning her body for the funeral, when she opens her eyes and says, “Where am I?” He calmly says, “You’re in a funeral home, you’re dead.”

The film is about death and about life — really, what does it mean to be alive? If your heart is beating and your lungs are pumping air, but if you’re sleepwalking through life, mentally and emotionally, are you really alive? I wanted the film to provoke the audience to think about their own lives … When we premiered the film at AFI Festival — it was so gratifying to me to see and hear the audience’s reactions to it.

The question is: is Anna simply dead and unable to come to terms with her death and does Eliot have this gift of transitioning the dead? Or maybe he’s in fact a psychopath who’s trying to teach Anna a lesson and planning on burying her alive. That’s the mystery of the film.

MS: What do you find most fascinating about the afterlife and death as a taboo?

AWV: I love how universal that question is — we all think about death. It all depends on the individual. We question our own mortality. I’m fascinated by how different religions have a different concept about the afterlife. For example, Buddhists believe in this transitional period. There is a rule where you’re not supposed to move or disrupt the body for first 72 hours. That’s when the process of the soul leaving your body takes place. I did a lot of research in preparation for the film. I went to many morgues and funeral homes in New York City. It was a tough experience, but it was crucial. It helped me tremendously as a writer and a director. I had to do it. I had to get really close to it. I made lots of friends with funeral directors, and my friends started getting really worried about it!
MS: That must have been terrifying.

AWV: Yeah, it was. Death is the primal fear we all have. But I love working with archetypal, primal fears and feelings. Walking into a morgue and seeing lots of young people who are there, and then walking out into a beautiful day made me realize how much potential we all have, and how people are not realizing their potential.

MS: I think that’s a really optimistic take on the issue. Do you think there’s a difference between physical death and emotional death?

AWV: Absolutely. The main character Anna hasn’t really lived life. She is a woman who has a lot of dreams, potential, talent and beauty, but because of her upbringing and her own repression, she’s not living life. Ironically, through death, she finds life. It’s almost like she’s most alive in the preparation room, while she knows that life has passed her by. It’s this question I often wonder about — why do we have to lose something to want it and miss it?

My father was only 33 when he died, but he lived a very full life. If you love someone, tell them now.

MS: What are your some of your favorite horror films? How do you think they influenced your making of “After.Life”?

AWV: Some of my favorite film directors in the horror genre are Roman Polanski, Dario Argento who’s very good with color, David Kronenberg, like “Crash” and “Dead Ringers,” Hitchcock, Kubrick, especially “The Shining,” and Takashi Miike’s “Audition.”

This is for other people to judge, but I’m told that I have a very original and distinctive style, and I never try to imitate anything. I’m very visual as a filmmaker. I often get compared to visual filmmakers — Tim Burton, Peter Gillaway, Terry Gilliam. I love films where you recognize that this is the work of the same director — it’s almost like there is a clear stamp of identity.

I had a very clear vision from the moment I started writing the script. I put together a visual handbook — photographs, paintings and fabric swatches and textures. The movie is about heightened reality, but the reality is anchored in the real world. There is a surreal, heightened feeling. I use a very lush color palette in the funeral home, using greens and violets, in contrast to the preparation room where Anna is, which is almost very spiritual, with whites and grays. Anna’s character wears the red slip throughout, red symbolizing love and life and color of blood. Blood is a visual motif in the film.

MS: What makes psychological horror more terrifying than your typical straight-up zombie flick?

AWV: Psychological elements make film so much more terrifying. Terror is borne within. Having a character experiencing strange things and reacting in their own way — that is scarier than a gore fest. There’s nothing more terrifying than psychology. It’s terrifying to imagine to wake up in a funeral home, and the funeral director tells you you’re dead, but you feel alive.

MS: How did Liam Neeson, Christina Ricci and Justin Long’s respective performances match up with how you envisioned the characters?

AWV: Very close. I love this idea that an actor brings so much more to the role, but obviously it starts with what’s on the page. Liam is all about details. He crafted an amazing character. In one scene he’s so chilling and frightening, and in another scene, he’s gentle and kind and compassionate. He is a very mysterious and complex character. With Christina, I was looking for an ethereal beauty. I think she also related to the character. With Justin, it’s interesting because he usually does humor roles. I felt Justin had something very different about him.

MS: Where do you hope to go next as a filmmaker?

AWV: My tastes are very eclectic, but I always gravitate towards dark material. I would love to do another psychological thriller with horror elements to it. I’ve been offered a couple of things since the film premiered, so I’m looking into them, and I’ll be making my decision after the film opens. It all starts with the story for me — for me, the genre is secondary. It starts with the story and the rest comes.

MS: What would be your advice for young filmmakers/film majors?

AWV: You have to believe in what you do, otherwise no one else will. Believe in your material and your story. Rejection is part of the business, but don’t take it personally and don’t give up. It’s not glamorous, it’s really hard work. It takes a specific mindset to do that.

“After.Life” opens nation-wide in theaters tomorrow.

---

« RETURN TO LIVING & ARTS

« PREV ARTICLE | NEXT ARTICLE »