_{Director/producer Bianca Lucas}

Netherlands-based Polish/Australian director/producer Bianca Lucas is a graduate both of Goldsmiths in London and the three-year filmmaking course at the Film.Factory in Sarajevo, helmed by Hungarian director Béla Tarr. In 2022 she completed her first feature, Love Dog, which won her a Special Mention from the Locarno First Feature Jury in the Cineasti del Presente International Competition. It also won a Best Actor gong (John Dicks) at the Bosphorus Film Festival.

“For all of its flaws and its simplicity, it’s still a little miracle,” Lucas says of Love Dog. “We made this film basically as a crew of three, including the actor, during lockdown. Very little resources. I wouldn’t want to make a film in that way again - with so little essential security - but I am proud because I finished it against all odds. And I do think that it achieves or at least begins the journey of achieving the elements I hope to represent in my work and life: veracity, intimacy, a compassion for complex psychological processes, and the kind of beauty that can seep into a life at the least expected moment.”

Aside from her skills as a filmmaker, Lucas also wears the producer hat on her productions. How does she manage to balance two highly demanding roles?

“I am not sure I do!” she responds with candour. “I’ve been in some ways forced into a production role on my own projects for several reasons. One of them has been urge. I had been wanting to get things done and sometimes create something out of nothing - not necessarily by choice, but for lack of resources or support. And it was hard to find someone who would have as much faith and zeal. I felt the urge, and so I made things happen. But when it comes to my own projects, I would love to give up the producer hat. I think now I’ve cultivated enough patience to do that, and let someone else in. When it comes to other projects, yes, prospectively I am very interested in producing and supporting other voices I believe in. I just created my company, Love Dogs. Let’s see how and where that goes!”

She is equally frank when asked to define the signature characteristics of her work. These should never be set in stone, she maintains. “We are always evolving and changing. But of course there are key tenets that resonate for me. The dignity of living creatures. And the idea that no one, no matter how lonely and rejected they feel, is dispensable or undeserving of compassion. I think it’s too early and maybe even narcissistic to talk about ‘signature elements’, but what I do hope to achieve in my work is a resounding feeling of veracity, intimacy, psychological refinement, and unassuming beauty. Through that, essentially, I want to reach that transcendental feeling of familiarity that you can’t easily put in words but that rings true when you experience it. To forge a deep connection, and to make some people feel less lonely. Including myself.”

And what are her expectations of Berlinale Talents? “New friendships and loves. Which equates to renewed faith in cinema, poetry, twists of fate. If I could get a producer out of that too, I won’t complain! Generally, finding a film tribe with which to carry and share the burden is so important… and so my highest hope would be to find new members of such a family,” she signs off.
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