24/02/2024 - BERLINALE 2024: The Austrian directorial duo dive into the ever-darkening mind of a farmer woman and the radical choice she has to make

(© Dario Caruso/Cineuropa)

How to cope with depression when you are living in mid-18th-century rural Austria, your life is dominated by societal pressure and norms, and taking your own life is the biggest sin possible? Basing their work on historical records of clerical interrogations, Austrian directorial duo Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala dive into the ever-darkening mind of a farmer woman and the radical choice she has to make, if she wants to fulfil her wish of being “out of this world”. We talked to the directorial duo about their Berlinale competition entry The Devil’s Bath [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala
film profile].

Cineuropa: Many films have already dealt with the historical plights of women. But the fact that these murders were committed by women is a rather unknown chapter. Where did you first learn about it?
Veronika Franz: Through the podcast of a US historian, Kathy Stuart. We had never heard of this phenomenon of indirect suicide. We contacted Stuart, and after a few conversations, she opened her archive to us. We read about hundreds of such cases throughout Europe. We were touched to hear the voice of a simple peasant woman from the 18th century and to read about her hardships, her longings and her thoughts. An Upper Austrian woman, Ewa Lizlfellner, became the main model for the film because an inquisitor interrogated her three times.

The fate of the women is only one aspect of the film. There is also the Church and the question of what these institutions do to us.
VF: It's also about dogmatism, the perverted construct of faith and how you can use that for your own purposes. That's what we liked about the material. If faith helps people, that's a good thing.

Severin Fiala: But if you're forced to kill someone just to be allowed to die, then it's just insanely absurd.

Your leading actress, Anja Plaschg, was initially only supposed to do the music. What made you offer her the lead role?
SF: When we saw how she reacted to the script, we knew there was a connection with the character of Agnes. We have a character that is passive, that lies in bed a lot, that does bad things. But we also have to like her; otherwise, the whole film won't work. With Anja, it was immediately clear that you would sympathise with her.

VF: She's not a professional actress. At first, we thought we’d say: “Okay, let's see what her strengths are, and maybe we’ll change the role or the script a bit.” But it turned out that we didn't have to. She's incredibly talented, very precise and disciplined. And in the end, she was able to do more than most professional actresses would do.

The characters live in a very tough environment. The husband can't offer much, and his mother has to survive, too. You get the impression that Agnes doesn't fit in.
SF: It was important to us that nobody would be a villain. They all try to help this woman somehow. There is also a lot of social pressure on the mother-in-law and husband. So it's not the mother-in-law's fault; it's society's fault and the fault of the dogmas we've all imposed on ourselves.

Your filmography is described as consisting of horror films. However, The Devil's Bath is more of a psychodrama. Would you say you’ve moved slightly away from horror, or have you always been a bit misunderstood?
SF: We made this film because we found the character and the topic fascinating, and wanted to do justice to the subject of depression. In this respect, it was clear to us that it wasn't going to be a horror film. That doesn't mean that we won't make any more horrors, because we also have other projects going in that direction.

VF: We started with a courtroom thriller because of the historical protocols, but then we went through a shift. We wanted people to be able to understand the situation Agnes is in and to feel how she experiences the world. So you can't introduce any genre twists. We love horror films, but we also take the characters seriously. If the characters need something other than the classic mechanics of a horror film, then we avoid them.