Silvan Zürcher: “Writing the script of ‘Das Mädchen und die Spinne’ [The Girl and the Spider] was a poetic process”

Brothers Ramon and Silvan Zürcher today, Friday 29th October 2021, the second last day of the 66th edition of Seminci, presented their feature film Das Mädchen und die Spinne  [The Girl and the Spider], the second in a trilogy that has been running for eight years and in which they have worked together to write a screenplay they described as “poetic.”

“The shoot was quite closed, but the stage of writing the script was more intuitive because we let ourselves flow when writing about the subject. It was a poetic process and then the shooting was a bit more rigid,” explained Silvan Zürcher after his brother Ramon pointed out that the script reached the shoot stage quite closed, so the actors didn’t have much freedom to deviate from it.

Given that they only had one camera, both directors had pre-fixed their movements, which turned the filming into a “rather technical” process that, nevertheless, soon began to open spaces for emotions.

In relation to the casting process, Ramon Zürcher explained that it was very classical and that only when they had the last draft of the script in their hands did they start looking for actresses, especially those who play Mara and Lisa. In the specific case of Mara, the fact that she was a “destructive character, with negative energy, who lies, is evil and even scratches the new furniture in the flat” generated doubts about whether to reinforce that facet, so the casting was complex.

The film has taken eight years to be released, according to the directors, due to production problems, since it was initially going to be German, then they thought of making a co-production with Switzerland, then they looked for support in Austria and finally opted for just Switzerland. Despite the long process, both brothers are now working on the third part of the trilogy, in which they will share the production and direction work.

Meanwhile, the film’s producer, Aline Schmid, acknowledged that she loved the filmmakers’ style after watching their first film, Das Merkwürdige Kätzchen [The Strange Little Cat], so she is already working with them on the third instalment.

Das Mädchen und die Spinne will be screened today Friday at the Carrión and Calderón Theatres at 16.00h, and tomorrow Saturday 30th at 19.30h at Broadway Cinemas.