The agencys mismatched intentions endanger both the ecological balance of the plateau and their way of life.
The filmmaker also breaks down the meaning behind his Venice title.
DEADLINE:Alberto Barbera said his selection team was surprised when they discovered you had submittedEvil Does Not Exist.
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Venice competition title ‘Evil Does Not Exist.‘Sideshow and Janus Films.
No one knew you were making a feature.
Was this by design?
RYUSUKE HAMAGUCHI:In some sense, yes, because I wasnt sure I could do this.
In some ways, the birth of this film is an accident.
I was making a performance piece for Eiko Ishibashi.
I didnt know how or when this would happen, so I didnt tell anyone about it.
But when it was done, it was just in time to submit to Venice.
DEADLINE:What are the origins of the story?
We spoke a lot about what I could make.
She sent me music, and I listened.
We even thought of an idea where I could piece together scenes from classic films.
None of these ideas stuck.
And then I began to think that perhaps we could find something in the area near her home.
Thats when we went out there and started to look at the different landscapes and think about script ideas.
That was October 2022, and I finished writing the script in January.
We were shooting in February and March.
DEADLINE:How did you land on the titleEvil Does Not Exist,and what does it mean?
HAMAGUCHI:These words came to me while I was looking at nature.
Think of it more as a titling of a music piece.
DEADLINE:Theres a strong ecological theme throughout the film.
How did you land on this, and what are you trying to say?
HAMAGUCHI:The ecological theme came from my research of going out there and seeing the spaces.
But I knew that I couldnt just shoot nature.
I needed people in there to make it interesting.
So, therefore, I needed a story.
Also, when nature and human beings come together, ideas around ecology or the environment come out naturally.
I didnt necessarily want to talk about environmental issues through this film.
HAMAGUCHI:I dont think I needed that experience to complete this film.
This film is of a small-budget scale, like my past films.
And the reason is that after going through that whole experience of the awards, I was very tired.
A small part of me was sick of filmmaking.
But at the end of the day, I have no other hobbies than watching cinema.
But I wanted to make something different.
So Eikos offer gave me a helping hand to continue.
HAMAGUCHI:Not at all.
It was way bigger than what I expected.
Far more people watched those films than I expected, and Im very grateful for that.
After those films, lots of people started coming up to me.
That was a scary experience.
Previously, I always needed to go after who I wanted to meet.
But after this experience, people wanted to meet me.
I didnt want a huge jump in my environment.
So making this film is my way of recalibrating.
