FIENDISH INTERVIEW: NATASHA KERMANI

Natasha Kermani is the writer/director of the short film The Turing Love Affair which recently debuted in the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival. The Fiend talked to Natasha about the film, her past, the present, and the future, here's what she had to say:

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Let’s start with you, Natasha. Why did you get into film, and what were the early films that lighted that spark for you?

This is such a hard question! I think most (good) filmmakers appreciate the form in total--after all, film making is all interconnected; it exists as a whole, each film referencing the other, a part of something much bigger…

The root of everything starts with storytelling. My father, an ER physician, is from Iran and spent a large part of his childhood in India--and he had the most amazing bedtime stories! This is where I learned story structure.

He’s also a total cinephile, and there was nothing I looked forward to more as a child than sitting down with him to watch a movie, be it a Cary Grant classic or Jurassic Park.

On the other hand, I draw a great deal of my artistic sensibilities and technical abilities from growing up around my mother, a tech-savvy performance artist. I was very lucky to be exposed to this world from such a young age. I suppose Film is the happy medium between Science and Art, my father and my mother…it makes sense, in some weird way!

Growing up, I was a total bookworm; they didn’t write ‘em fast enough for me back in the day. I would raid the library, my father’s bookshelf, local bookstores, anything to get my fix.

I grew up knowing that a story is a powerful thing. And the human capacity for imagination is perhaps our strongest asset, as a species. Stories last longer than anything else, really--they stretch far into the past, and see far into the future.

My biggest influences, currently, probably include Tarkovsky’s Solaris (as well as Lem’s novel), Otomo’s Akira, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and that whole slew of 1980s Neo-noir sci-fi’s, and Wong Kar Wai’s work, namely In the Mood for Love and 2046. Today, I truly admire Christopher Nolan’s talent and work-ethic. He’s a real professional!

I should mention, however, that I am equally influenced by William Gibson’s novels, as well as a large number of graphic novel writers, like Warren Ellis, Frank Miller, and Brian K. Vaughn.

Truth be told, I’m inspired by everything I see and hear, every day. Just walking down a street here in New York will give you enough material to tell a hundred stories, if you just keep your eyes and ears and heart open.


How did your experiences at NYU enhance your love of film, and how did the relationships you developed there help The Turing Love Affair come together?

The most important part of going to a school like NYU Film is meeting your “crew.” Film making is collaborative; no team, no movie, no nothing…so you gotta meet your people!

I personally enjoyed being at Tisch very much. I consider it to be an environment where one can really hone the craft of film making, to be surrounded by like-minded people, and to nurture skills.

The TLA team, however, was really amazing. It was a really cool time when we were just beginning to hit our stride, and we were feeling ambitious--ready to take risks. Two major players included my Production Designer, Raquel Cedar, and Producer Lauren Conoscenti – both strong, creative, ass-kicking women.

My DP, Seth Hagenstein, and I were eager to not only pay homage to classic sci-fi, but to also try our hands at some edgy stuff, to take the opportunity to brainstorm with what we could do creatively. Seth truly worked some magic, with his technical skill and visual imagination. And the rest of the crew was right there with us, keeping stride!

It’s inspiring to be surrounded by talented people, and I think it’s really that simple. Keep raising the bar, trying new things, pushing the limits. Why the hell not!? After all, the future of this industry is in our hands, and that’s very exciting.

I agree, if you can't raise the bar, why bother? With The Turing Love Affair you indeed raised the bar for short film, and coming out of the gate with such a polished piece is quite the accomplishment. What were your initial goals for the short?

The film was made as a part of a NYU’s advanced workshop, a year-long class we took our junior year.

From the beginning, though, I maintained that the project’s primary goal was to exist as a “business card”--not just for me, but for every major member of the crew--for future projects and work, sort of like a movie-sampler. Personally, I plan to continue making genre films, so it was a fantastic opportunity to try my hand at sci-fi.

In many ways, this 15-minute film is a pitch for longer-form projects. It perhaps is not as contained as it ought to be, or imperfect in terms of a “short film,” but we were toying with feature-length concepts, and I think the film is successful in that regard.

One of the most important goals, and part of the real challenge, was to create a sense of place. We essentially set out to create an alternate universe, from the sets to the costumes, and to really bring that environment to life. This was the true thrill of working on TLA--that every element was crafted and designed, down to the very last detail.


The atmosphere of the movie was a definite key to making this story work, and I would say it was a character onto itself, surrounding quite an assembly of strong characters. Can you explain the thought process that went into creating your characters, and did the setting have a role in their creation?

Well, the cyborg character, Charlotte, is defined by her setting: an isolated station in deep space. She has never been to Earth, and never been off the station. In fact, she is exists primarily as an extension of the station itself; I call her a “cyber-geisha-stewardess,” or “comfort-stewardess.” The idea here is that deep space is very uncomfortable for humans--claustrophobic and unnatural. So the Charlotte character is literally there to help space-travelers feel comfortable, created in an attempt to lessen the discomfort of deep space travel. She is designed to be physically attractive, even seductive, and emotionally caring and available. Unlike the human characters, the androids are in their element in deep space. They are healthy and strong, beautiful, and evolving.

All the humans in this world are sickly, and they all have their various addictions--a sense that something is wrong with the biological beings, that perhaps it is time for them to be surpassed by the artificial ones.

But although the robots may be physically superior, there is something melancholy about them: I refer to this idea as ‘Android Mysticism.’ (See Asimov's Robot Dreams, or Gibson's Neuromancer, or even Kurzweil's Age of Spiritual Machines) I’m fascinated by the metaphor of The Machine--that something will be lost along with the weakness, sentimentality, and romance of the “old humans,” as represented in TLA by the ill-fated musician character.

However, beyond all these hyper-intellectual/sci-fi musings, these characters were originally crafted from their relationships, and like all good sci-fi, is based out of reality, of real relationships and experiences. Each of the four characters is based on an individual (or individuals) that I have known in life...just thrown into a sci-fi universe! They were easy to create and design, because they already exist...

The core idea is the experience of ‘awakening,’ or of a character falling in love for the first time (with a person, with music, with the idea of Earth, whatever), and the aftermath.

The Machine learns to love through music, because music is the perfect melding of math and mysticism, or romance, or art, whatever you want to call it. The Charlotte cyborg becomes, in many ways, the Singularity; a being that has been awakened, and evolved to new heights.

Much of the “atmosphere" of the film is most directly a result of the overall production design: I wanted a 1950's/Soviet feel, as though this was a world that had achieved space travel during that time period. I think I naturally gravitate towards that 40's/50's aesthetic, but it worked nicely here to allude to that sense of romance and mystery--a time when women wore makeup and hats, and men drank scotch, dammit! This was also Alan Turing's time period, so those elements are a reference as well to his story.


Wow, with so much thought and background given to these characters and universe, and having seen TLA myself, I would love to see this story expanded beyond the short. Do you aspire to take the material into a feature? Or possibly do anything else with it, such as developing it as a novel, graphic novel, or television pitch? Or are you satisfied with what you've accomplished and feel prepared to move on?

The TLA story is currently being re-invented as a feature-length project that I’ve been working on called The House of Mede. The feature version follows the same core concept of the android-human love story, but is much darker--more along the lines of the Frankenstein--and takes place on a desert oil-drilling planet (similar to the Frank Herbert Dune series) instead of a space station.

I don’t see this specific story being expanded and adapted as a graphic novel or video game, as much of it is really meant to be experienced as traditional cinema; in a dark room, with larger-than-life characters up on the silver screen doing fantastic and beautiful things in fantastic and beautiful locations.

However, I think the core elements would translate very nicely to these other formats. I’m extremely interested in hybrid game/movies, as well as being involved with new technologies. Someday I hope to do an interactive film/RPG-esque sci-fi story in an immersive holographic environment (NOT this dumb pseudo-3D business that’s going on now)…but that’s a few years off, I think!

And to answer your question, I don't think I'll ever be satisfied with a finished product, but that's the feeling that drives me onto the next project!

What is the immediate future hold for the TLA short?

We’ve got our sights set on the Cinéfondation part of the Cannes Film Festival, which is for student films, as our “big” festival; beyond Cinéfondation, we’re going for a bunch of Sci Fi and genre festivals. After festivals, we may or may not consider going for some sort of distribution, but the film really exists as a calling card for future projects.

And moving forward, what projects are on your slate?

Lauren and I are currently gearing up to shoot another short (5-8 minutes, max) this fall, as a Writer-Producer team. The project is called Ella La Loup (“Ella the Wolf”): it follows the story of a mysterious woman who comes upon a motorcycle accident victim, and the last conversation they share before his death. Inspired by the exploitation films of the 1960’s and 70’s, Ella exists on the edge of psychological horror, blurring the lines between hero and villain, tormentor and victim.

Beyond the short, I may be directing an independent feature written by performance artist Amelia Saul in the coming months. The project is a witty, personal story about a young woman on a search for her father, very old school New York City film making.

I also make small, 1-2 minute shorts that I call Fashion Media pieces--these basically exist as visual and sometimes narrative advertisements for fashion brands and designers. I’m very interested in a merging of fashion and film, and the projects keep me sharp and working creatively, which is very important!

However, my real passion is Science Fiction films, and I hope to get my sci-fi feature project into shape over the next year, and begin developing it for production.

All of it sounds excellent, Natasha! Good luck to you, and you can be sure that the Fiend will be following your career.

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And if you have a chance to see The Turing Love Affair at a festival, make sure you do, it's a fantastic piece of cinema!