Meltse Van Coillie: writing the Great North from Bordeaux

The Belgian director Meltse Van Coillie was welcomed this summer in Bordeaux as part of the international writing residencies Cinema de La Prévôté, organized by ALCA in partnership with the Biarritz Latin America Festival and the Poitiers Film Festival. Here is a look back at a month-long residency devoted to her feature film project Torpor, set in the Far North.

You have been in residence at La Prévôté for the past two weeks, in July, while the heat is overwhelming...

Meltse Van Coillie : You talk about the heat wave. It's true that it's far from the cold atmosphere of the script I'm working on. My film project, Torpor, takes place in the Arctic night. And with the stifling heat right now in Bordeaux, I have to redouble my imagination to project myself into the snowy landscapes of the Great North. Being here, in Bordeaux, in the middle of a hot summer, forces me to change my work rhythm: I mainly write early in the morning and in the evening when it's less hot. Coming to write here in winter would have been a completely different experience.

Can you tell us about this project, Torpor?

M.V.C. : It’s my first long feature script. Torpor centers around a scientific expedition in the Arctic. The crew stumbles upon a village where all inhabitants mysteriously seem to hibernate. But the more scientists study the phenomenon, the greater the distance between them and their research subjects. It’s a film about our eternal quest for knowledge, and our difficulty with surrendering to ‘the unknown’.

Where did you get the idea of this hibernating village in the Far North?

M.V.C. : Like most filmmakers, I am intrigued by the concept of time, by the different experiences of time. My first short film, Elephantfish, is set aboard a cargo ship, where the sailors live months of isolation, encapsulated in the deep blue ocean. Their only mission is to clean the boat, at the slow and obsessive rhythm of the journey. With Torpor I wanted to explore other places where time is lived in an alternative way, for example: the polar regions. I looked for artist residencies beyond the Arctic Circle and found a place in Greenland - the Upernavik Museum residency - where I was welcomed. I explained to them that I wanted to explore the polar night, the darkness and the ambivalence of sleep.

The ambivalence of sleep?

M.V.C. : I have a troubled relationship with sleep. I don't need much sleep. At night, I imagined myself alone in the Arctic, isolated in this icy space. The idea of a hibernating village came to me.

So you went to this residence in Greenland?

M.V.C. : Yes, even though the trip was very expensive. I stayed there for five weeks: in November and December 2019. My boyfriend, Harm Dens, then joined me because we often set up our projects together. We started writing there. We went back in January 2022. We returned in January 2022 to shoot our short film Nocturnus, which was made thanks to the Flemish Film Fund's Wildcard Award. During the process of creating Nocturnus, I had to sacrifice several ideas that could not fit in a short film. Hence my desire to write a feature film.

How was your stay in Greenland?

M.V.C. : My residence took place in the town of Upernavik, which has about a thousand inhabitants. From the first day I arrived, I experienced what a very heavy snowstorm was like. Everything was plunged into darkness, in a moonless night. I thought it was better to wait until next day in the morning to explore the city. But in the morning, it was the same darkness, the same snowstorm. A very strange atmosphere. I was staying in a small house next to the Inuit History Museum where you can see canoes, shamanic objects...

"I was inspired by their stories and their way of dealing with the unknown, but not to the point of wanting to integrate Inuit culture into the film."

Did this proximity to Inuit culture influence your writing?

M.V.C. : I was inspired by their stories and their way of dealing with the unknown, but not to the point of wanting to integrate Inuit culture into the film. I didn't want to link the idea of human hibernation to an existing culture. Especially since I don't feel legitimate, as a foreigner, to talk about Inuit culture.

But you were still able to make contacts that enriched your writing?

M.V.C. : We were in the middle of the Christmas season. It's a holiday that is celebrated very intensely over there. I was able to take part in the festivities, and talk to a few people - even though most people don't speak English but Greenlandic and Danish. One young girl asked me outright, “Do you believe in ghosts?” I thought her question was a great way to get to know each other.

Does your feature film Torpor take up the themes of Nocturnus?

M.V.C. : Yes, it does. In the icy immensity, a scientist discovers a group of sleeping people who breathe at the same rhythm, who seem to share the same synchronicity, the same connection beyond consciousness. They are united with each other without even knowing it. The scientist is fascinated by this strange sense of community. So much so that she ends up suffering from being excluded from it.

Do you already have any ideas about how you will direct the film?

M.V.C. : The feature film will be visually very different from the short film. For the short film, we shot in 16 mm, in black and white, with the idea that this landscape was already in black and white: snow and night. On the contrary, I would like the feature film to be in color: I realized on location that there is in fact a whole range of very subtle blues. The closer the sun gets to the horizon, the more the bluish atmosphere becomes tinged with shades of green or purple. In the short film, we had static shots, always with the idea that the icy landscapes are still. But I realized that in fact everything is living and moving very slowly. A bit like my sleeping characters who barely move their eyelids.

Do we find these themes of a small, autarkic community and the experience of isolation in your other short film, Zonder Meer?

M.V.C. : Zonder Meer does feel a bit different from the other films in that sense indeed, although I would say the concept of psychological isolation is present in the protagonist : Lucie, a five year old girl, is isolated from her parents and the other holidaymakers as she doesn't understand the drama that occurred in this summer camp around a lake, in the same way as they do. 

At this stage of the writing process, what does the residence at La Prévôté offer you?

M.V.C. : First and foremost, La Prévôté offers me a working space that cuts me off from my daily life, from the disturbances and distractions of my family and friends. The one-month grant is also a significant financial support. It is rare that an artist is paid at this stage of his work.

You are a Belgian, a Flemish filmmakerfrom Antwerp. How did you hear about the Prévôté residency?

M.V.C. : My school film Elephantfish was screened at the Poitiers film festival in 2019.  Filmmakers whose films are selected can apply to the "Jump In" program, if they want to develop a first feature film. These workshops also offer writing residencies in partnership with the New Aquitaine Region and ALCA. Elodie Ferrer encouraged me to apply for the residency at La Prévôté. It's a brand new experience for me: writing my first feature film. Being here, in Bordeaux, in the middle of a hot summer, forces me to change my work rhythm: I mainly write early in the morning and in the evening when it's less hot. Coming to write here in winter would have been a completely different experience.