Recently, Cinematheque Passion has been hosting a great line up of local productions for the Macao Films Panorama 2020, including the premiere screenings of the winners of the Local View Power 2018-2019 program. Altogether, 66 proposals were received by the Macao Cultural Centre jury for the most recent edition of Local View Power, with 15 projects ultimately being selected and commissioned to go into production.
One such project was the short-film, The Handover, directed by Macau-based filmmaker, Maxim Bessmertny, which opened the Macao Films Panorama 2020 with screenings in early May.
The film, co-written by Maxim and Jorge Cordeiro dos Santos, tells the story of a young couple who have to move apartments and must quickly get their old apartment ready in order to hand back the keys to the landlord by 5pm that afternoon. What ensues is a fast paced series of events and problems that the couple must solve by the tight deadline, along the way being distracted by a number of unrelated issues… a situation many in Macau can likely relate to.
“When Jorge first told me his idea for the story, I immediately thought about how every day so many filmmakers have to move from one studio to another, or move back home to edit their films because the rents are so high here and it’s tough to find work spaces,” explains Maxim. “All of us have kind of gone through this experience, whether it’s moving homes or workspaces, and this story also resonates in a comedic way. It’s kind of inspired by the old Italian cinema of the 1950s and 60s, Commedia all’italiana, where you have all these quicks accidents happening, jumping from her story to his story during the film.”
The comedy is provided by a series of mishaps including a run-away pet dog and a seriously blocked toilet situation, as well as some humorous one-liners that were actually adlibbed by the actors on the day of filming. Ultimately, the story centres around the relationship between the couple, Miguel and Sammi, played by local actors Jorge Vale and Mi Lee.
“We took a comedic approach, with the girlfriend being local Chinese and the boyfriend being Portuguese,” explains Maxim. “Jorge was perfect for that because in his own life his wife is local Chinese, so he could really connect with the role. I discovered Mi through my co-producer who I’ve worked with for many years, and when I saw them both in rehearsals I felt immediately that they’d both be right for the roles. It was a great experience to discover their chemistry on film.”
Altogether, there are 17 cast members and 10 crew, with a combination of semi-professional screen actors, theatre actors and a handful of complete non-actors.
And in a perfect reflection of the realities of daily life in Macau, the dialogues between the characters take place in four different languages, English, Portuguese, Cantonese and Tagalog.
“What I loved about the script is that there are so many languages and so many communities represented, that’s how Macau is for me,” notes Maxim.
Two of the cast members come from Macau’s local Patua theatre company Dóci Papiaçám de Macau. “I went to the Patua theatre performance in May last year, and I saw them perform on stage and thought they’d be perfect for some roles in my film.”
Meanwhile, another of the main characters, Kuya, is played by local Filipino musician Ari Calangi.
“I asked him if he’d like to act and he immediately said yes,” says Maxim. “I was excited because I’d known him for a long time and seen his concerts, and I’m a big fan.” Ari’s music also features as the sound track for the film.
Altogether, production on the 25-minute film took around a year, with four months pitching the proposal to the Local View Power jurors, further time spent finishing the 27-page script, followed by four busy days of filming and around three weeks of editing.
“The grant for the film was kind of low budget, so I had to immediately approach this from a realistic perspective. I had to figure out a way to make a film that was going to take up a year of my life, and how to still provide everyone involved with a normal salary, but as a filmmaker not end up completely broke, which has happened to me in the past.”
Part of Maxim’s strategy was to film in black and white, and to film all the scenes within a very short period of time.
“The speed of the film helped us film in a style that was very Cinéma vérité of the 1960’s,” notes the director. “I have been very inspired by Jean-Luc Godard’s cinema of the 1960’s and Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves. I’ve always wanted to make a film like this, so this was the perfect opportunity, and shooting in black and white with our director of photography António Sanmarful was an amazing experience.”