Michel Franco is no stranger to the Sarajevo Film Festival. Speaking at a masterclass at the Bosnian Cultural Center on Monday, the prolific Mexican filmmaker, who is presenting his latest feature\u00a0Dreams\u00a0at the festival, remarked that this year is his tenth time at the festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was first invited to screen my film at the Sarajevo Film Festival, I told myself that I had to accept,\u201d he said. \u201cYou only get a chance like that once in a lifetime \u2013 to come to Sarajevo. Who knows when another invitation would come? And here I am now, probably for the tenth time in Sarajevo, which has become my second home.\u201d<\/p>\n
More from Deadline<\/strong><\/p>\n The\u00a0Memory\u00a0and\u00a0New Order\u00a0writer-director-producer sat down for a wide-ranging discussion with Bosnian Australian journalist Ennis \u0106ehi\u0107 to share his insights into filmmaking, his writing process and how he maintains creative control in much of his work by producing his own films.<\/p>\n \u201cI write films on my own because I want to better understand some of the things that have questions on and I know I won\u2019t get the answers to at the end, but I want to find out more about why I\u2019m attracted to these things and these people,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, through the process of writing and making the film, my understanding changes or deepens and it\u2019s a privilege to make films about the things that trouble me and to explore them.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cI am never trying to feed the audience with an answer because I don\u2019t have the answers. I\u2019m not making films that make you feel that at the end you learn something. That is exactly the type of filmmaking that I despise \u2013 when a filmmaker is arrogant enough to want to educate the audience, which usually happens with some sort of satisfying, happy ending where you go home and learn a lesson. I think that\u2019s mainly Hollywood\u2019s game.\u201d<\/p>\n Franco\u2019s latest film\u00a0Dreams, starring his frequent collaborator Jessica Chastain, is a twist on the star-crossed lovers romance which sees Chastain play a wealthy socialite who has a romance with a Mexican ballet dancer. The film is continuing its festival run after premiering in competition in Berlinale earlier this year.<\/p>\n Franco said it was an idea he had for a decade and when on the set of\u00a0Memory, which also stars Chastain, he told her about the idea for\u00a0Dreams,\u00a0and she was keen to board the project.<\/p>\n When asked whether or not the \u201ccruelty\u201d in the film \u201cmatches the reality between the U.S. and Mexico,\u201d Franco responded: \u201cNo \u2013 if we try to have that conversation, it falls short. I\u2019m more into the intimate story and what these two people do to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n He said that if he were to make a film about the two countries, \u201cit would resemble\u00a0New Order,\u201d referring to his dystopian drama about inequality.<\/p>\n The multi-hyphenate said that being born in Mexico \u2013 where he still lives \u2013 and sharing such a large border with the U.S. means \u201cwe are born into a reality where one country is on top of the other and that\u2019s the deal and it\u2019s never going to change.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cThe power dynamics are very clear. So, I was always trying to make a film about that, but it was only through an intimate love story \u2013 if we can call it that \u2013 it occurred to me. I wasn\u2019t thinking so much of commenting on the two countries.\u201d<\/p>\n Franco said that he was driven by ideas that make him feel \u201cuncomfortable.\u201d \u201cAs soon as I start \u2013 if any ideas start to make me feel uncomfortable, I say that\u2019s good and that\u2019s exactly where I should go. Why am I feeling uncomfortable? I never try to make it easier for myself or the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n He regaled how he stepped into the producer\u2019s role, something that happened on his debut film\u00a0After Lucia. His friend Marco Polo Constandse, who was set to produce the project, told him it couldn\u2019t be produced for less than $800,000 and that they wouldn\u2019t be able to shoot in chronological order (something Franco does on all of his films). \u201cI sat down the same day, I worked on a budget myself and I called him back and I said, \u2018We can shoot for nine weeks in chronological order for $150,000.\u2019 And so, we did.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cTo lower the budget you don\u2019t pay people less \u2013 you simply hire less people. So that\u2019s when it started. There\u2019s a lot of creative thinking from individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n Franco said for that production he didn\u2019t use a production design team and that he still doesn\u2019t use them often and that he also often edits his own work.<\/p>\n \u201cYou focus on the people, and you focus on the actors. I trust my cinematographer and but it\u2019s not that we design a film, but we adapt ourselves to what we find and that\u2019s a more interesting process than just storyboarding something and saying this should be fluid.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cThe real trick is to surround yourself with talented people who understand what you want better than you do.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Deadline<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Deadline’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ca.news.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Michel Franco is no stranger to the Sarajevo Film Festival. Speaking at a masterclass at the Bosnian Cultural Center on Monday, the prolific Mexican filmmaker, who is presenting his latest feature\u00a0Dreams\u00a0at the festival, remarked that this year is his tenth time at the festival. \u201cWhen I was first invited to screen my film at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1966795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[348266,348265,345852],"class_list":["post-1966794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-jessica-chastain","tag-michel-franco","tag-sarajevo-film-festival"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Im-Never-Trying-To-Feed-The-Audience-With-An-Answer.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1966794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1966794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1966794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1966795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1966794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1966794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1966794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}