_{Piece of my Heart by Dana Nechushtan}

Piece of my Heart (a world premiere in Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival) is an intense, ballet-based, 70s-set melodrama which, unlike Black Swan and many other films about dance, has real dancers in the lead roles. Elaine Meijerink, who plays young ballet student Irma, was a student at the Royal Conservatoire in the Hague when she auditioned. Roos Englebert who plays her friend and rival, Olga, had also studied there.

Director Dana Nechushtan was determined that the film, set in Amsterdam during the 1970s, would feel as authentic as possible. “I really, really think it is impossible to be an actor and have the mind of a ballet dancer,” she insists.

Ballet dancers, the director continues, spend “their whole lives working on their bodies.” They are trying to perfect themselves. A stage or screen actor would take “years and years” to train to their level, “and even then they wouldn’t be good enough.”

If she hadn’t had real dancers in the principal roles, Nechushtan would have been obliged to use body doubles for the ballet sequences. “And that would really have limited my freedom with filming.”

Meijerink and Englebert were among the first to be considered for their roles. Nechushtan was impressed both by their dancing skills and, even more importantly, by their sensitivity. “You can see behind their eyes. A lot of ballet dancers are really, really tough -  and because they have such a hard life, they close everything [emotional] down. But those two, both of them in a completely different way, they showed me that I could see their soul.”

Irma is the controlled one, ambitious and very self-disciplined. Olga, though, is the one “trying to live more” and who has a self-destructive streak.

At first, the director wasn’t sure that the two young leads could carry their roles dramatically. However, she immediately put them on a five month acting course. “If you’re a dancer, you work on the outside and the outside has to be perfect. If you’re an actor, it’s not the outside. It’s all about the inside! They really tried to learn to get to the inside of their beings.”

In her bid to make her film as believable as possible, Nechushtan also recruited one of the Netherlands’ most famous dancers, Igone de Jongh (former prima ballerina at the Dutch National Ballet), as her technical consultant. She made sure De Jongh was on set. “I had her in every scene where there was dancing or talk about dancing, or anything to do with dancing!”

Nechushtan had first been approached about directing the project by producer Frans van Gestel of Topkapi Films. She was immediately intrigued by the material. “It was first of all the character, a very strong woman character,” she says of Olga, the brilliant young dancer who can’t handle the pressure of her own growing fame. “That really, really attracted me - it’s like an Amy Winehouse story,” the director suggests.

The director pays tribute to Van Gestel. “I think he is an extremely good producer and he really protected me during the whole process. He gave me complete freedom. In all the questions about whether to use dancers or actors, which I sincerely understand, he really supported me. Not everybody was convinced at the beginning but he was always on my side.”

Piece of my Heart may be set in the 70s but it also has the feel of a dark fairy tale or of one of those operas with a tragic undertow.

In one very striking and symbolic scene, Olga is shown falling into a recently dug grave. Yes, the director explains, they were filming in a real cemetery. “It’s not that there was someone in there already,” the director jokes of the burial space.

Following completion of the film, Roos Englebert has stopped dancing. She is working as a model but wants to continue acting. Elaine Meijerink remains a dancer but also hopes to continue her acting career.

After its world premiere in Estonia, Piece of my Heart is set for a lavish Dutch premiere in late November at the DeLaMar Theatre.

Throughout her career, Nechushtan has divided her time between film and TV work - and has directed several high-end TV dramas including episodes of hit series The Adulterer. “I always felt no difference between television and film,” she says.

Her next project, titled Elixir, will be for television and will again be produced by Topkapi. It’s a high-end drama series which plays out the in the shadowy world of “big Pharma.”

Piece of my Heart is produced by Topkapi Films. Sales are handled by Beta Cinema. The film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund and Film Production Incentive. For the full PÖFF 2022 line-up, click here.
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