An Interview with Eric Lamhène

Getting eyeballs on your film in the crowded months of the awards season can be an uphill battle. Particularly if it grapples with tough subject matter. It’s a reality that director Eric Lamhène is keenly aware of as his domestic violence drama Breathing Underwater — Luxembourg’s official Oscar entry for Best International Feature — enters the fray of contenders. “It is not the type of film that you want to watch at seven o’clock after work,” he says. “It’s a very hard sell.” The good news is that along with its Oscar entry status, Breathing Underwater recently picked up two big awards at the Letzebuerger Filmprais for Best Feature and Best Screenplay, which will surely help get the word out that this sensitively drawn film is about so much more than what just goes on behind closed doors.

Starring Carla Juri, Breathing Underwater follows Emma, who is gently encouraged to check-in at a women’s shelter by a nurse treating the clearly traumatized woman at the hospital. When she arrives, Emma is surprised to discover a bustling household, filled with laughter and children, and she gradually forms a strong bond with her roommates Sasha (Alessia Raschella), Khadji (Veronique Tshanda Beya), and Espe (Esperanza Martin Gonzalez-Quevedo). The friendship powers a picture whose journey about the difficult and uneven road toward healing is often brighter than you might expect.

Nearly ten years ago, the filmmakers — Lamhène and his creative partner/cinematographer/co-writer Rae Lyn Lee — started their research on the film, visiting shelters across Luxembourg and speaking to the residents, and they immediately found their expectations upended.

“We had this preconception that the women are sad, the children are sad, everything’s gray, and everything’s horrible,” Lamhène explains. “And what we found when we went in, it’s a place full of life. The kids are running, they’re having fun. The women, they went through horrible things, and they of course are traumatized by it, but they give each other strength. And this paradoxical thing became the beating heart of the film. This idea that at a women’s shelter, the people that are going there are the weakest people in society, because they are in need of shelter. But what we found is that oftentimes these women are the strongest.”

This deep level of study extended to Juri as well whose raw and physical performance is the core and audience guide through the picture. “She’s a method actress,” Lamhène explains. “We would go out for drinks in the evening, and I would realize that [she’s wearing Emma’s] wedding ring. And so over the first few weeks leading up to the shoot, she would wear [Emma’s] jacket, she would wear her clothes, she would put the shoes on. She would also say, after five days, ‘You know what, these are not her shoes.’ So then she’d go [shopping] with the costume designer and find the clothes that are [Emma’s], and then she becomes the character. It was very interesting and it’s really intense as well. What you see [on screen], she plays it, but she also feels it. All those emotions are real.”

The picture is unique for dealing not just with the more common cinematic depictions of physical and sexual abuse, but also in the way economic and psychological threats can be just as devastating and traumatic. The result is a film that deftly balances the artfulness of a social drama with a genuine desire by Lamhène that Breathing Underwater serve as an educational tool. Since the wrap of the film’s local release, the director has been touring the movie in schools around Luxembourg.

“We’re showing the film to 100 to 250 students in one go. And it’s me, one of the directors of the shelter, Esperanza, plus other survivors of violence. And then we have an exchange with the students. And it’s all in this idea to be preventative and to tell them what it’s like [to experience domestic violence]. Those are the best screenings for me, because they have great, great exchanges,” Lamhène says. “And the reality is, one class size is about 25 to 30 students, and there will be two to three [students] that are directly affected by [domestic] violence. Either they are living it now, or they have lived it recently.”

These screenings have been meaningful experiences for the director, who clearly treasures the way his film has connected with audiences, particularly younger viewers.

“Recently, one of the kids at the end lifted up his hand and said that he realizes now, through watching the film, that he was actually growing up in a household [with] psychological violence,” the director adds about the impact the student screenings have had. “Because often what happens is that the when you’re young, when you’re a teenager, and you grew up in this, whatever you see around you becomes normal. And I take great joy for the film to have this extra life and this exchange with students.”

Breathing Underwater is in contention for Best International Feature at the 98th Academy Awards.