Vinothraj P.S. is an Indian filmmaker. While working in a DVD shop in Chennai, he was introduced to people from the Tamil film industry. This led to him becoming assistant director on two films by A. Sargunam. After working as a assistant theatre director, he began making his own films. Pebbles (2021) is his feature film debut with its world premiere at IFFR.
On the occasion of “Pebbles” winning the Tiger Award at the International Film festival Rotterdam, we speak with him about the landscape of the film, balancing seriousness and humor, the cast, and other topics
The landscape is one of the protagonists of the film. Was that your intention from the beginning? Could you tell us more about the area the story is located in?
I was born and grew up exactly there, in this area in a village around the place where we shot the film. I lived there untill I was 18 years old and left then to go find a job. Once, it was a flourishing village with farming thanks to a lake. A lake that doesn't exist anymore, bringing poverty to the village.
I wanted to put the landscape from the start at the centre of the film. The characters should react to it. I wanted to search for the influence the landscape could have on them, and on people in general. In this case this extreme landscape, the sun and heat, finds its equivalent in the temper and anger of the character.
What inspired you to the story?
I have been inspired by a similar incident that happened to my own family. It concerned my sister who had to deal with a situation such as depicted in the film. This was of great impact on me. Moreover, this kind of incidents happen quite often in the neighbourhood. I conceived the film from the beginning as a road movie. First, I thought it to be the wife that should travel and walk around, but while writing the script I changed my mind.
How did you find your actors? Are all of them professional actors?
After completing the script, I searched for people in the neighbourhood to enact the characters of the film. They are all non-professional actors, except for the actor incorporating the part of the father. But he also originates from the region the film is set in.
In order to find the child, we casted around 70 kids. We wanted to have a boy that would come from a similar background as the boy in the film. This was necessary to be able to keep the emotions as real as possible. The kid we found in the end, experienced an even worse situation than what we depicted in the film.
We made a workshop for about six months to make everybody feel comfortable in front of the camera, since, at the beginning, they had some fear of it.
I think you have a perfect balance between seriousness and humour. Are these the kind of films you like to watch yourself?
Yes, I like this kind of films, but I also watch all sorts of genres. I wanted to combine for “Pebbles” strong emotions with humor, the reactions had to be extreme.
Which filmmakers from India have been inspiring for you?
I especially admire filmmakers such as Ritwik Ghatak, Satyajit Ray, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Majid Majidi, Balu Mahendra and Ram.
What were the biggest challenges you encountered during the making of the film?
Every day of shooting was a challenge. Mostly because of the weather conditions. It was either raining a lot or it was very hot up to 42 degrees. The actors would get tired and it was important to have them in the right mood to film.
