DEADLINE: When did you first develop the idea forClose?
Was it straight afterGirl?
Authentic connections between young men are not nourished as much as we should nourish them.
Lukas Dhont.Marc Piasecki/Getty Images
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DEADLINE: You said you found a book on the subject, calledDeep Secrets.
How did that help you translate your idea into something real?
It showed me that what I thought was personalwasntpersonal, and thats an important step in my writing process.
From left: Gustav De Waele and Eden Dambrine inClose.A24
Im looking for a way to express my feelings so universally that they can be felt by many people.
I strongly believe in the sense of collective catharsis, so I look for the places weve all been.
For example, weve all been heartbroken by friendship.
Weve all been pushed away.
Weve all pushed people away.
Its something that takes us over and so often slows us down.
DEADLINE: What do you do when youve found your subject?
DHONT: I then take a stab at incorporate something concrete.
DEADLINE: The main character lives on a flower farm.
Why did you choose that location, and why was it important to you?
I grew up in the Flemish countryside, very close to a flower farm.
And all of a sudden, they run out of that bunker and into this colored flower field.
Its the complete opposite of what we have just seen, the flowers, the fragility, the tenderness.
And these flower fields allowed us to show it in an organic way.
DEADLINE: Why were you so drawn to telling these stories?
When we are adults, we come to understand just how impactful our younger days are.
At least, for me they did.
DEADLINE: Youve often said that, as a kid, you wanted to be a dancer.
Why did you become a film director?
DHONT: When I was 12, there was a school trip.
Its kind of out there, its quite poppy.
I stopped dancing afterwards because I felt so uncomfortable.
I didnt have the courage to say, Whatever.
Ill just continue to do whatever I want.
I didnt have that.
And for the longest time I didnt dance again.
DEADLINE: So why did you pivot to film?
DHONT: Both my parents are really cinema lovers.
I started to write stories about other realities zombies, vampires things I could disappear in.
And it became my new outlet for creativity.
I think I felt comfortable there because I could disappear into another reality.
DEADLINE: How did you develop that from a hobby into a life choice?
DHONT: I dont know.
But it never felt like a hobby.
From the moment I held that camera in my hands, it just felt like this was my thing.
Its very difficult to describe that, but I felt like this was right.
I cant explain it in any other way.
I felt like this was for me.
So when I was 15, 16, I was already writing scripts for feature films.
I was already calling producers.
So there was this passion from very young that pushed me toward it.
So it really felt like I was just waiting for it to happen.
DEADLINE: How was film school?
This was what I thought.
There was a real shift for me there.
And so in my short work, I think I already started investigating that a little bit.
DEADLINE: What would you like to say about those shorts now, and where can we see them?
Its about that sense of being disconnected from your parents as a child.
Its about a sense of loneliness and about finding a place, about finding a space like home.
And then I also made two fiction shorts in school.
Its a very abstract film, very choreographed.
Its a dance between the masculine and the feminine seen from this perspective of a young boy.
So you’ve got the option to already see what Im interested in there.
Its a first trial, using themes that will be visible in the rest of my work.
DEADLINE: Then, of course, you madeGirl.
How do you feel about that film in retrospect?
DHONT: I havent re-watched the film recently.
Maybe I will sometime soon, I dont know.
It was an incredibly beautiful, overwhelming first experience.
The first time is always special, as we all know, in many ways.
And I think its a very dear film to us.
DHONT: Oh my God, of course.
I feel like with the first one, you do not have the context.
Youve never been to a big festival.
You havent premiered a feature.
So I think with the second one, I was much more aware of everything.
I was much more looking at myself from an outside perspective.
DEADLINE: So whats next for you?
DEADLINE: Is that how long it takes you, for each project?
DHONT: I mean, its the years that its taken now.
Maybe it goes faster, maybe it goes slower, I dont know.
But until now its what it took.
DEADLINE: Is there anyone you want to work with?
Id love to work with Colin Farrell, and Id love to work with Michelle Yeoh.
DEADLINE: Thats a good list right there.
Have you had any approaches from the U.K. or America to work in the English language?
So Im open to whatever comes my way.
Ive read some beautiful things, and Ive met some beautiful people.
