Electra
Electra
In this piece, Hala Matar, director of the film ‘Electra’, narrates her sources of inspiration, draws comparisons between her film and ‘Saltburn’, and discusses the motives of the main characters of the film – crisis of identity and desire for revenge.
This time, the world premiere of Matar’s new film Electra takes place at the Oldenburg Film festival on Thursday. It is a jumble of the themes of identity and vengeance conveying the experiences of Dylan (Maria Bakalova) a foreign journalist and his partner who is unwittingly tied in a love affair with a porcupine rock singer who last comes to Italy and mayhem breaks loose as it attempts to play out like some Greek epic. Because she claims to be the first female Bahraini features film director, Matar witnessed, so to say, the evolution of her creation and how she imagined its major influences.
Matar’s creative inclination towards Italy came first through her work and influences. “I love Italian movies. [Film director] Fellini is the best, 8 and 1/2 is the best movie I have seen ever. I always wanted to shoot a movie for Italy…so I always had that intention I guess. And on top of it, I was there with Daryl [Wein, who also acts in the film] who is also my co-writer and we were in this gorgeous palazzo, which, you know, is most of the film, actually takes place there. So we in fact tailor made the plot to fit the place.”
As might be expected, one of the film’s reference points is The Talented Mr Ripley. “I just say that I wanted to research the questions surrounding identity. I thought about The Talented Mr Ripley quite a lot while I was writing this.” The film also draws similarities with the more recent Saltburn and even though this film was not an influence for Matar, she is not adverse to the comparison. “I saw [Saltburn]. I mean, this film was made before the other film came out. So when the other film came out, I was like… laughing. I think that would make the best comparison.”
Matar’s influences span a much broader timeframe than Saltburn or even the The Talented Mr Ripley movie of Electra.
With regard to her inclination towards the Greek tragedy, she stated “I’m just more drawn to classical themes and classical literature whether that be, you know, Shakespeare or Greek. I always try to create my stories based on the basic story lines but in my own way. I think the reason why I chose the title is just because it has that common theme of vengeance which is a main point of the story and it also concerns family.” She even stated that “The most important theme in the movie is vengeance.”
Identity is also a very important topic of the film. Matar, for her part, says: “With identity I think I have struggled as well. I was in the art world, I had a gallery in New York when I was very young, I was practically living in an art gallery and I was surrounded by really prominent art figures. I do not think that, for the first two years after college, I was being a filmmaker in the true sense of the word. I had great complexes, and it seemed to me that I was playing someone who wasn’t me, so much of it is from life in my early twenties. I was not true to myself as an artist.”
Matar is of the view that these issues are something that the viewers will connect with: “What I want people to leave with is the thought that there was unfinished business.”
The ending of the film and the subsequent conflict has been caused by Dylan seeking his goals. Whether in relation or in business cooperation, not dealing with things directly or finishing things without resolution is just waiting to explode somewhere. It can become disastrous as is the situation in the movie. So the lesson is this: do only honest things and try to finish everything the right way.”
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- Genre: Thriller
- Country: United States, Italy
- Director: Hala Matar
- Cast: Maria Bakalova, Abigail Cowen, Jack Farthing
