In making her feature film debut Fall In Place, German actress Aylin Tezel took on an immense challenge as she handled the role of writer, director, and a lead role in an international co-production shot in Scotland and London.
She portrays Kira, one of two lost souls who meet by chance in the wintry setting of the Isle of Sky. After sparks fly a near year-long journey to realise their love is initiated that takes the characters to London and to what ails them as they must learn to put their lives on a more positive footing after heartbreak and emotional turmoil.
This film, soon to play at the Glasgow International Film Festival 2024, is a gorgeous cinematic experience with a well-structured story and an assured use of visual language that ensures the narrative offers a heartfelt romance that culminates in a satisfying final scene that earns its emotional payoff. It’s quite an impressive achievement for a debut and shows Tezel has a lot of talent and this feature comes after cultivating an award-winning acting career in her native Germany and abroad, and writing and directing a number of shorts.
Ahead of its Glasgow screening, Tezel took part in this interview to explain the origins of her film, from casting and freak weather to romance and set/lighting.
It is quite an impressive debut feature. It is very beautiful and commits fully to telling a love story without any cynicism and I appreciated its mature approach to parallel storylines of character needing to grow before offering the finale.
Where did the inspiration for the story come from and why did you want to film it in the UK?
The first moment I connected with my main characters Kira and Ian was while I was walking through Victoria Park in London with a friend a few years ago. We talked about dreams and I admitted that it was my dream to write and direct a feature film. As our dreams seemed so big and our reality so far away from fulfilling them I said to her: Let’s start with a tiny first step and do a little game. I set a timer on my phone for 30 minutes and said to her, we’d each have to write either a scene, a poem or a song in those 30 minutes. She chose a poem, I chose a scene and so we sat down and started writing.
Straight away I heard two voices in my head. A man said to a woman: Life is just a repetition of distractions to make us forget that we die, until we die. And the woman answers: Really? That’s why we’re sent here? The two of them chat about their sense of what life really is, until he tries to kiss her and she rejects him with the words: I don’t think we’re there yet.
The scene was written, I looked at my phone and still had 15 minutes. So I wrote down who I thought those two people might be and what their story could look like. When the phone’s alarm went off the idea for Falling Into Place was born. I couldn’t forget about those two people and so two months later I sat down in a little café in Edinburgh on my first Scotland trip ever and started writing the script. Two nights in a bed & breakfast turned into 4 weeks and that first scene and a vague idea turned into my first feature film script. I never questioned the fact that I, as a native German – was writing an English language film and a story that’s set on the Isle of Skye and in London, it all just happened and I let it happen.
You have extensive experience in front of the camera and you have written and directed a number of short films but this is a bigger project, it is your feature film and shot across different settings. What was it like working on this level and what was the most memorable challenge you overcame?
The biggest challenge really was to work in 3 different positions at the same time. As the writer, director and actor in the main role of character Kira, I had a super packed schedule in the weeks and months leading up to the shoot. I was super lucky though to have had the best and most supportive team I could’ve wished for. As a debut film we had to work with a small budget whilst really the story was full of characters and locations. We follow two people who meet on Skye but then part and return to their separate lives in London, which means we basically had to tell 3 stories in one. The first part follows Kira and Ian while they meet on a remote Scottish island, surrounded by beautiful, dramatic landscape, hanging out in places that seem a little bit stuck in time. Then we arrive in the metropolis of London, which is a stark contrast, lively, loud, colourful. And for that bit of the story we had to create two worlds, including two friendship circles, two homes, two work spaces. That’s how we ended up with a lot of locations and thus with a fully packed shooting schedule.
The initial meet-cute and subsequent walk-and-talk between two people travelling reminded me of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise (1995). Were there any films that acted as an inspiration?
I obviously watched the Before trilogy when it first came out and loved especially the first film. The beginning of Falling Into Place surely delivers a similar familiarity between two strangers who have nothing to lose or hide as their initial connection is based on the potential that they might never see each other again. But with Kira and Ian we go a step further as Kira is being introduced to a part of Ian’s world when she meets his family and gets a glimpse of their hushed up trauma. My DOP Julian Krubasik and our production designer Andy Drummond and I watched a lot of films to find a common filmic language. We liked how Andrea Arnold portrays nature in her version of Wuthering Heights, Sturla Brandt Grøvlen’s camera work in Another Round, and the way Drake Doremus worked with improvisation in Like Crazy.
There are many passages where the acting really hits the heart. That moment of love at first sight when Kira and Ian catch each other’s gaze across the bar and the ensuing chemistry felt authentic and entertaining to watch. A lot of that is down to the personalities of yourself and Chris Fulton.
How did you meet Chris Fulton and what was it that made him perfect to play the role of Ian?
Chris was introduced to me by our Casting Director Des Hamilton, a Scot himself and based in London, who had cast big films like Jojo Rabbit and Only God forgives. I was first being sent tapes of a bunch of excellent Scottish actors and then did two rounds of live castings with our favourites out of the group. I was honestly blown away by their talent. Such lovely people and amazing actors! In the end it was Chris who we decided to go with, as he really touched us with the variety of his acting skills and his approach to the role. And of course, as I am telling a love story, the chemistry between him and me as Kira was essential.
As a director who has acting experience, can you talk a little about how you worked with the cast? Did you allow them to make changes to characters and was there the chance for any adlibbing (especially between you and Chris in the first meeting of characters) or did you stick strictly to what was on page?
I always made as much space as possible for my actors to include their own ideas. Being an actor myself I know that actors own a role and thus naturally change what’s on the page the moment they enter a scene. It’s a magical experience to watch an actor fill an idea of a situation with their own humour, their thoughts, feelings, their pain and their creativity. All that I can do as a writer and director is to build a foundation with a well-written scene and to lead gently where I need to. But I believe fully in the freedom of spontaneous energy and the wisdom of actors. With each of my actors I prepped the scenes, made sure that everyone is happy with what the scene wants to explore and asked them to change the dialogue if they felt the need to do so. Some actors stuck to each word from the page, others made their dialogue into their own, with some of the scenes we stuck to the script, with others I improvised with the actors.
The film is always well shot. The camerawork feels entirely appropriate for getting into the headspace of the characters. There are a lot of gorgeous visual passages in the film. The quality of the light and the tone of weather play big parts. The Isle of Skye has a rugged beauty while the foggy streets of London look romantic so that, while the symbolism is meant to indicate feelings of turmoil, the film is always visually appealing – seeing these moments on a big screen will be very moving. Weather is often a matter of chance while framing interiors is design.
Can you explain your approach to the visual design film and if there were any moments when you had something unexpected happen that you used?
The most unexpected visual gift was surely the snow that the film gods sent us in the scene where Ian can’t get his Dad’s car to work when they have to rush to an emergency! I had initially written the scene in lashing rain, as I wanted nature to be very present. After several discussions about rain machines and fire engines on the Isle of Skye my producers let me know that we wouldn’t be able afford the fake rain in the scene and I let go of the idea. But then, on the shooting day itself, when we were already in the middle of filming that scene it suddenly started snowing – in April! My first AD thought that we would have a huge problem now with continuity but I loved it and ultimately got my powerful nature moment. In general I was very pleased with the weather and gloomy atmosphere that the Isle of Skye and Glasgow – where we shot a lot of our London scenes – and then also London itself provided us with. The light and surroundings are often a mirror to our main characters’ inner landscape, their turmoil and loneliness, and support the melancholic tone of the film. The interior light was of course designed beautifully by our DOP Julian Krubasik and gaffer Fabian Zenker and supported by the work of our production designer Andy Drummond, by the choice of furniture and wall colours. We worked with a hand held camera to move naturally with our characters and in order to be flexible whenever we went into improvisation.
A Wong Kar-Wai quote I often think about is the one about love being a matter of timing. This story encapsulates that idea in a romantic sense as chance plays a big role in how the characters meet but there is also a more realistic element of how they must also confront issues in their lives before they can realise their love for others. The combination of realism and romance is well done in this. What are your feelings about love and chance?
I love your expression “The combination of realism and romance”. I’d say this describes pretty well my look on life. I have a deep trust that things happen the way they’re supposed to happen and that even when you feel like falling you will eventually land where you were always supposed to land – Falling Into Place.
Now that you have made your feature film debut, what do you plan on doing next?
I’m working on my next feature film script and look forward to jump into directing again. And in the meantime I’m enjoying working as an actor. It feels lovely to use different tools at different times in order to create art and be a part of making films.
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. I hope that the screening in Glasgow goes well!
Thank you so much for your questions and interest. We can’t wait to bring the film home to Scotland!
Falling Into Place plays at the Glasgow International Film Festival 2024 on Saturday, 02nd of March, and Sunday, 03rd of March. That last one is sold out.