What Happens When You Lose an Actor In the Delta

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Category: James Van Maanen

Published on Saturday, 13 March 2010 16:24

Written by James Van Maanen

Screenwriter, essayist and professor emerita in New York University Graduate Film School, Yvette Biro has collaborated with film directors such as Miklós Jancsó, Zoltán Fábri and Károly Makk in her native Hungary, as well as with other internationally-known directors. Her most recent book -- Turbulence and Flow in Film, published in 2008 by Indiana University Press -- appeared in both in French and English. After viewing Delta and learning that its screenwriter was here in the U.S., a very short Q&A commenced via email.

Q: Were you always connected with the movie in both versions, the earlier one featuring the actor who died suddenly, and the current version? If so, how was it to work with a different cast on the same material? Did you have to make a lots of script changes to accommodate the new cast? And, do you feel that the movie might be better in this later version?

YB: The first version was truly different because we were closer to the original-classical Electra story. In this one, the murder of the father (though only as the basic situation and departure point,) defined the Electra's motivations and later the brother’s actions. It was their passion of taking revenge on the mother and her new accomplice-lover. Also, Electra was on the side of the people, against the rudeness of the new “governing power.” In a bit more hopeful ending, only the brother could escape, Electra became a victim, perishing in the fight.

With the tragic death of the original actor who played the brother we had to simplify the story, focusing more on the relationship of the siblings. They became naturally close to each other in this hostile environment, having in the background the denied crime. The restrained incest was always there.

Q: The film is considered Hungarian, yet it is set in Romania, in what looks like a small town, amongst people who would be called here, a very “small-town” mentality: unpleasant, small-minded, hypocritical, nasty, angry, jealous, murderous, in fact. Is Romania the country of choice for folk who mirror these adjectives, or might the same thing be found in the small towns of Hungary (or Germany, where, I believe, some of the production money came from)...

YB: Right, the film is Hungarian but the physical environment had its inspiring function with its natural beauty and peacefulness. It was the landscape that had its primordial force in the articulation of the story: maintaining the remoteness, without the overemphasized social or ethnic background.

Q: Did you or the director ever envision any other outcome for these characters? Could the story have taken any path that might have proven more hopeful?

YB: We found that the wonderful idea to build a house, to work together, is simple and by principle, great, showing hope and looking for a better future. This common understanding and closeness are more significant than the guarded incest. Their love becomes natural, though timid, and not a scandalous, erotic sin.

Q: The film is odd and interesting because it sets up a taboo (incest) and then breaks it -- partially because the possible mates that these two characters have to choose from seems a pretty puny bunch: They can either choose each other, which is, in most societies, a no-no, or pick someone from the gallery of creeps on display. Only the girl’s uncle seems remotely like a decent guy. Whoops -- that would be semi-incestuous, too. Any thoughts on this?

YB: Yes. Thus the solution that they are not only excommunicated but punished to death became an unfortunately undeniable truth today: “Otherness” and having different habits, ways of living, is rarely accepted, and intolerance and hatred can often be regrettably violent. With this sorrowful recognition we got closer to our everyday experience.

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