Interview with Priit Tender on “Ussinuumaja” (“The Maggot Feeder”)
Priit Tender is the Estonian director behind short films Mont Blanc (2001), Fox Woman (2002) and Kitchen Dimensions (2008). His new film Ussinuumaja (or The Maggot Feeder) is currently doing the rounds at many festivals. Based on an ancient Chukchi fairytale, the short follows a dark and surreal journey of female discovery, with themes mirroring those in many of Tender’s other films whose focus on folk tales and the macabre show a real connection with the director’s home land of Estonia.
The film uses a collage of hand-drawn character animation with live-action footage composited onto the heads; The main character’s playful quirkiness is exaggeratedly juxtaposed against an eerie and solitary wilderness backdrop. The actors used are all very well known in Estonia and give great expression and drama to their roles in a similar way to silent movie acting.
After seeing Tender’s work at the recent Stuttgart Festival, Skwigly took the opportunity to sit down with the director and discuss what it is about fairytales, the surreal and indeed Estonia that brought about his latest work.
Can you tell us how you got your start in animation?
I studied together with the elder son of Priit Pärn, our leading animator. So as I graduated Priit Pärn and Janno Põldma started their epic film about cinema history 1895 and I was asked to work for the film as background artist. So I got a good work experience from the studio and could direct my own film after that.
What effect has Estonia’s long history of animation had on your own work?
It’s hard to evaluate it by myself – a fish doesn’t know how is it to live in the water, he can describe it only if someone pulls him out, but yes – most definitely I breathe the same air and work in the same studios and communicate with the same people. So I’m part of a bigger unity and tradition. Even if you try to break the tradition with every film you make you realize that this has also been a part of the tradition.
So your film Ussinuumaja – or The Maggot Feeder – is taken from a book of Chukchi fairytales, what was it about that culture that made you seek inspiration from their history?
The collection of Chukchi fairy tales was very popular in Estonia in the early 80s. It consisted of dark, surreal tales that made no sense at all. It somehow contradicted the authoritarian doctrine – it was sincere, brutal and real folklore, not modified by Soviet censorship. Reading these stories youstrongly feel that they come from a different universe, they are the ambassadors of another world. And you want to understand this world, you want to know is there any logic behind those lines? They also have a serious impact on your subconscious, I think they are written for that.
Did you make any alterations to the original when adapting it to short film format?
No. That was my key principle. I consider the text so valuable that I have no right to change it. I could only change it for worse, it would lose its authenticity and that’s its main value. Right now I’m also working on a documentary that deals with the same story. It includes the shorter version of my animation film and is kind of an anthropological road movie. I traveled to Chukotka (it’s in the last tip of Russia, just next to Alaska) to solve the mystery of this fairy tale. I hope the documentary will be finished by the end of this year.
Can you tell us a little about the actors who played the faces of your characters?
The main guy, Taavi Eelmaa, is one of the best known Estonian film actors, he’s very cool and crazy and enjoyed the spider’s role a lot. The woman, Elina Reinold is also a well known actress and I love her strange, low voice which fits well to my weird world. I have used her in one of my previous films, Fox Woman, as a narrator. I wanted them to act a little bit in an overdramatised, expressionist style, it seemed that realistic acting won’t fit very well with the animation and the whole storyline.
You change your way of working a lot in your films, what made you choose this approach?
It’s always nice to try new things, that keeps you excited about the project. I thought adding live action to this fairytale makes it more believable, more human. It also creates a bizarre reality between animation and fiction, a space where you don’t know for sure what is real and what is not. I wanted the animation characters to have more of a psychological depth and for that reason decided to attach actors faces to them.
Can you tell us a little about your work with Studio Eesti Joonisfilm and how you got involved with them?
I worked there as an artist first and then was offered to direct my own films. I have also worked there as an animator for a year, I guess. You just have to write a project, apply to Film Institute and if they support it, you can make the film. As a freelancer my work with the studio is all project-based.
Your previous works have been screened in many festivals – including Annecy and Ottawa – and often look into the dark and surreal element of folk stories. what would you say draws you to these types of narrative concepts?
I’m quite bored with traditional stories, I don’t consider them worthy of spending my time in screening them. Luckily we don’t have to make wide-audience films and that’s why you look at the dark side, explore the unknown. These old folk tales come from a past era of human thought, like naïvist paintings they possess the similar charm of storytelling. I consider them precious.
Can you tell us a little about the project you’re working on now, Mexican Express?
I have been developing this feature project with my Bulgarian partners for years already. It’s a mixture of animation and live action, for grown ups. It’s about the old cartoon stars that are running a rehab center in Mexico… I think the script is in showable condition now and we are trying to find financing for it. Feature animations are so painful to watch, ours will be completely different – especially if we never manage to finance it.
The Maggot Feeder will be screened at this year’s Encounters Festival in Bristol on September 18th (repeated on the 21st) in the Ani 2: From Mountains to Maggots category. His previous short Kitchen Dimensions will also be screened as part of the festival’s focus screening Estonian Dreams.