Award- winning film maker Kathryn Ferguson told David Hennessy about her new short film Nostalgie which has already been BAFTA and IFTA recognised.
Kathryn Ferguson came to prominence with Nothing Compares, her documentary about Sinéad O’Connor.
The film took the IFTA for Best Feature Documentary and was a double winner at the British Independent Film Awards. It was also a winner at Galway Film Fleadh and received Emmy nominations among many other awards and nominations.
Ferguson has now moved into drama with her short, Nostalgie.
Adapted from award- winning author Wendy Erskine’s short story Nostalgie stars Aidan Gillen as Drew Lord Haig, a faded English 1980s pop star who is unexpectedly invited to perform in Northern Ireland, pulling him out of musical retirement and into a moral dilemma tied to the unintended legacy of his work.
What begins as an exercise in nostalgia turns into a reckoning when Drew discovers his music has been repurposed in ways that contradict its original intent.
The short features original songs and score by Dan Smith, the Grammy-nominated, Brit Award-winning frontman of Bastille.
It also boasts cinematography by Robbie Ryan (The Favourite, Poor Things).
Ferguson could be set for more awards success as the film has already been both IFTA and BAFTA nominated.
Kathryn Ferguson took time to chat to the Irish World.
What inspired you to make Nostalgie?
“It was directly linked to the release of Nothing Compares.
“After Nothing Compares was released I, quite surprisingly, then had a few producers reach out about drama.
“I genuinely hadn’t thought past Nothing Compares because it had taken up so much of my psyche for so many years.
“I just wanted to make that film so I hadn’t thought beyond what would come next, so I was interested to have these calls but genuinely didn’t have plans beyond the film or making more feature documentaries.
“There was one great producer Kath Mattock who got in touch with me saying a similar thing about drama.
“And she was like, ‘Have you read the work of Wendy Erskine?’
“She (Erskine) is a fellow Belfastian and I had read her first book of short stories, Sweet Home, which I loved but beyond that, I hadn’t.
“And she said, ‘Well, there’s a new book out called Dance Move, can I send you it? There’s 12 short stories in there. Maybe have a read and see what you think’.
“I was sent the manuscript and it was actually whilst I was charging about with Nothing Compares, when it was doing its festival run and everything.
“I brought this book with me and I read it on a flight somewhere and loved it.
“I loved all the stories, genuinely but it was this one story, Nostalgie, that really jumped out at me.
“I think initially it was how cinematic it was.
“Wendy writes in a very cinematic way.
“I could see it instantly.
“But also, I think it was because of my own work with Sinéad and looking at an artist and what happens to their work when it goes out in the world.
“When it’s released, they lose the control of their own art in many ways.
“It can get into the wrong hands and they lose their autonomy.
“I suppose it’s the opposite of what happened to Sinéad, someone who kept her values and her integrity and fought very ferociously for her work to be protected.
“The flip side of that then is this artist Drew Lord Haig who was a one hit wonder in the 80s and chooses not to investigate where he’s going or who he might be performing for and maybe lets his own vanity or desire to be seen to bring him to Belfast without doing the research that’s needed.
“Obviously Trump has used Sinéad’s work a lot which she would’ve been displeased with.
“I know it was an inspiration for Wendy when she was writing the story: We have paramilitary groups in the north who have Tina Turner, Simply the Best as their theme tune so this wasn’t based on nothing.
“It was very much based on fact.
“I know that Tina Turner had, in fact, also tried to cease and desist this from being the case but once an artist’s work goes out in the world, there’s very little that can be done to stop it being used in the wrong way so that deeply appealed to me.
“As a filmmaker from Belfast, I’ve lived in England for 25 years and it was really interesting to me to think about what an English man might perceive of the North today.
“Obviously there’s a lot of apathy towards the north of Ireland from people in England as we well know.
“I guess that really appealed: To show how this disconnect of what the north of Ireland actually is and our histories and our politics and our lack of interest of reading into it further, which I think was done so beautifully with Drew.
“He’s such an amazing example of that.
“And then I guess also how to look at these histories, the stories of the Troubles particularly.
“It’s something that has been told in many different ways.
“This felt like a fresh way to look at that story as a contemporary story but looking at all of these layers within it felt quite complex and really appealed to me.
“And also on top of that, given that Ireland is having so much cultural cachet right now and a lot of it’s coming from our musicians: The Fontaines DC, Kneecap, Lankum, there’s a renegade Irish way that seems to be deeply appealing to Britain right now and we’re having this moment in the sun culturally but there’s also a real disconnect with what that actually means in our histories and why we make the work that we make and what we’re trying to say.
“I think all of those things just set everything off for me.
“When I read the story I thought, ‘This is a fascinating compact short that we can tap into these themes’.
“The film is a mix of horror and Belfast humour which I think is quite confusing for audiences. They don’t know if they should be laughing or not but I think that also feels very authentically Belfast and how we cope with our history through humour as well.”
My first time watching the film it seemed like it was just a former pop star playing a pretty unremarkable gig but that is until the story takes its dark turn and then everything seems dangerous and sinister. Context is everything, isn’t it?
“It is.
“I love the line from Marty, who’s the barman played by Sean Kearns, saying, ‘Did you not look them up?’
“And the fact that Lord Haig spent his ferry journey drinking Guinness and trying to connect with a young woman on the boat instead of Googling and actually really looking into where he was going, speaks volumes.
“It’s very much about what he was hoping to get out of this experience against looking more into this group that he’d agreed to go and, I guess, sell his soul for.”
Another thing he did on that ferry was, of course, read the book Milkman (Anna Burns), is that an intentional reference that he was reading a book about the Troubles while unknowingly walking into something treacherous?
“Of course.
“That was him trying to fill up his boots with Northern Irish ways and history on his quick jaunt over.
“That’s the beauty of Wendy’s very wry eye and writing.
“That was part of the short story itself, the reference to The Milkman.
“We were delighted to get that in.”
What has been the reaction of the author herself, Wendy Erskine?
“She’s been a really big part of the collaborative process.
“She loves it.
“I was with her last night at the screening in London and she talked so beautifully of it.
“She said never in her wildest dreams when she was sitting that day writing this story, could she imagine this thing coming to life in the way that it has.
“It’s her first adaptation.
“It’s the first film of her work and of course, there’ll be many, many more with all the brilliant work that she’s doing at the minute.
“But I think for her, it was a real eye opener.
“She actually came down to set on the day that we filmed the big scenes and it was a real pinch me moment.
“We were filming in the Dockers club in Belfast and we both were just looking at each other, aghast at this huge crowd of these incredible actors who knew every word to this song that we had made up based on this title.
“It was very surreal for us both to be seeing this come to life.”
To have someone like Aidan Gillen in the central role must have been a dream..
“Yeah, Aidan was incredible.
“He was cast and it was such an amazing coup.
“I was delighted that he really connected with the story.
“Aidan isn’t a singer but was also up for putting himself into this role and performing live.
“The performances in the film are live so they were recorded in the room and he just gave it his all.
“It was a real delight working with him.
“He was really, really generous.
“He’s really generous with his time.
“I think he fully embodied Drew Lord Haig in quite a miraculous way.
“Both Wendy and myself were really quite stunned by his performance and how much he was able to give to it. It was amazing.
“But also a big person to mention in all of this is obviously Robbie Ryan as well.
“We managed to get Robbie which was just phenomenal.
“I’d met Robbie, again, through an event via Nothing Compares a year or two before and we just thought we would chance our arm and cheekily ask, might he be free for this of course expecting a no but I always like to ask just in case. His lovely agent came back saying, ‘Well, he really likes the script but he’s got four days this year that’s free. That’s all he’s got’.
“And we were like, ‘Okay so when’s that?’
“And that was in a month after this call so we then suddenly went from like having what felt like quite languid time for a couple of years just kind of rolling along to being like, ‘Right, if you want to do this and you want to do it with Robbie, you need to pull production together in four weeks’.
“So that was just the driving force that made the film come to life.
“Then Aidan came on board and then the other actors who are obviously all outstanding, all came on board within that period too.
“And the songs were written as well, so it was this extremely intense four week period where it just all came together.”
The supporting cast includes Jessica Reynolds of the Kneecap film, Seamus O’Hara (An Irish Goodbye, House of Guinness) and Michael Smiley (Spaced, Dead Still, Bad Sisters) so you had such a wealth of talent..
“Yeah, it was extraordinary.
“And Sean Kearns as well.
“I just couldn’t believe what was happening.
“We had this idea that had been, as I said, percolating for a few years.
“We didn’t know if it would ever get made and then very quickly, it suddenly snowballed within these four weeks and I suddenly walked on set for the first time to look at who we had.
“It was an extraordinary collection of people from Robbie to the actors to Dan Smith’s songs that he’d written especially for the film.
“It was like another film that felt like it wanted to be made.
“It doesn’t always happen like that.
“It had a lot of flow so I was very grateful for that.”
We touched on this already but I’m sure artists want their work to be remembered but it’s probably a case of be careful what you wish for. You want to create an anthem or not an anthem for hate..
“Absolutely and I just think there’s this key theme of what happens to an artist’s work when it goes out in the ether and they’ve no control?
“It’s so interesting that once it’s out, you have to kind of let your babies go and hope that this doesn’t happen but it obviously does, as we’re seeing more and more.
“It can go into the wrong hands.”
It also says something about the ignorance of some to the Northern Irish situation.
Drew says it is ‘cool’ these days but as we said, he should really be doing more research..
“And it feels like it is something that we’re all deeply conscious of and I’m certainly conscious of being a person from the North: How little people know about our history and the politics.
“It feels like there is an apathy and I thought that was just dealt with in a very deft way in Wendy’s story.
“I felt it didn’t feel like it was bashing people over the head with it but it was just done in a very nuanced way.
“It’s certainly something that we do feel deeply politically that that is the situation we’re in.
“There’s this disconnect or lack of interest with what our situation is which certainly hasn’t helped anything in our political history.
“It felt like this was a side way to get into that theme and put it out there and show audiences, I guess in this country too.
“Hopefully it’s quite thought provoking.”
Did you feel a similar responsibly to Wendy on this for it being her written story to what you felt for Sinéad telling the story of her life?
“Absolutely, hugely.
“I felt a deep responsibility to both of them.
“Nostalgie is very close to the original story and I was just delighted that she wanted to come on set.
“Stacey (Gregg, writer) and I shared early scripts with her and we very much included her in the process and wanted her to feel that what we were doing was inclusive and respectful of the work.
“She was a real joy to involve and she’s been such a delight since it’s come out.
“But the source material is everything, isn’t it?
“It’s the source so being able to do it respectfully and carefully with her felt very important for me as a director.”
You had great success with Nothing Compares, is there a sadness about the experience now through due to her sad passing some years ago?
“Oh no, I think it’s one of the proudest things I’ll ever do.
“I just feel so deeply honoured that I got to make that work and I got to make it with her, and that it deeply resonated with her.
“Definitely it will be one of the proudest things I’ve ever done and I’m so proud of it.
“I’m so proud of everybody that worked on it and I am very emotionally connected to it and will be, I’m sure, until the day I leave this earth.
“No, I’m just still astounded it that we got to do it and we got to do it with her and before we lost her and just forever be extremely grateful for that.”
Were you moved by the outpouring after she passed away?
“Of course, of course.
“I think Ireland truly showed its feelings after she went with the mass mourning.
“It was extremely moving to see it, and across the world.
“I just wish people could have been kinder to her when she was here.
“She was treated terribly and suffered a huge amount and the only small solace is in the final couple of years that she did have a reckoning and was vindicated, but far too little too late in my opinion.”
Going forward what kind of stories interest you?
“I think I’m really interested in stories about Ireland actually.
“I’m interested in how we are today particularly, rather than looking back so much.
“I’m interested in our grief actually.
“I’m deeply interested in the female experience as well.
“That’s why Nothing Compares got made.
“It was all intuition.
“It was a passion project.
“It took four years to get off the ground.
“We started from nowhere, from nothing.
“It was my first feature but what drove us as filmmakers was this passion and intuition that this story needed to be told at this time and we moved mountains to get it made and to get it out there.
“I guess that’s the only type of work I want to do now, is work that I can connect so deeply with that I can put my whole self into.
“That’s what’s going to drive what comes next: Just having a belief in these stories and wanting to tell them.”