“Samhain”: Interview with director Kate Dolan

On the occasion of the release of his first feature film Samhain – the origins of Halloweenwe spoke with director Kate Dolan about her film which reworks the limits of its genre, against the backdrop of the heritage of Irish folklore, as well as family, its dramas and its secrets.

A religious festival with Celtic origins, Samain marks the transition from the summer season to winter, the celebration of which reaches its peak on the 1er November, echoing our Halloween party. But far from mediocre ghost costumes and innocent candy tricks, samhain tells us the story of Charlotte, a young teenager living in the Irish suburbs with her grandmother and her mother, Rita and Angela Delaney. The latter, struggling with depression, radically changes her attitude after having disappeared for a full day without any explanation. But while Charlotte wonders about this sudden change, the behavior of her parent becomes more and more worrying.

112 CHAR Hazel Doupe Housing Estate Ext.  Screen Grabs "samhain" : Interview with director Kate Dolan

For this first feature film, samhain (You’re not my mother of its original title) is intended to be a horror film with the allure of a psychological thriller and coming of age movie. ” That was the whole point of the film, to stay within the framework of the horror and to bring all these elements without getting lost. It was quite tricky [rire]. And despite the horrific atmosphere of the film, it is this controlled mixture of genres that makes it so charming. Thus, the gloomy and comforting landscapes of Ireland serve as a setting for Charlotte’s destiny, witnesses of her loneliness and her complicated relationships with her comrades, but above all of the dismantling of her family.

Perceived as the strange family of the neighborhood, the film depicts the place that mental illness takes in Charlotte’s home, and its impact on the bonds between its members. ” When you’re young and your family is dealing with mental illnesses, it’s hard to go about your life without being affected by it, so you build yourself on those foundations somewhat in spite of yourself. Personally, life at home was far from perfect, and in a way, I tried to create my own little family outside of the domestic setting. »

The stakes turn out to be all the more complicated for Charlotte who, having grown up in a very assertive spiritual environment, is imbued with these myths and legends which seem to shape her destiny, but whose beliefs are sorely tested. Even as her folkloric heritage tends to impose itself, Charlotte will see her certainties shaken up (“ I don’t really know what to believe anymore ”), despite the predominance emanating from the matriarchal framework. ” The three generations of women in the film are a metaphor for Irish society. It is a complex alloy between the magical thinking of the grandmother and the belief in other worlds, with the backdrop of the influence of Catholicism. I also wanted these women to represent our relationship to trauma. The grandmother is in a state of mind where one should not talk about painful things and secrets. The mother, on the other hand, is more the type to say “I don’t think I can bear the weight of all this”. While Charlotte, who is quite close to my generation, is more in the desire to bring out the secrets of the darkness and to face what has been swept under the carpet. »

048 ANGELA Carolyn Bracken House Int.  Cait Fahey "samhain" : Interview with director Kate Dolan

In a festive context where the monsters are out, samhain then recounts the struggle of Charlotte and her family against their own demons. And although she is warned against the demonic creatures against which it is necessary to protect herself at all costs, her mother quickly embodies the darkness against which she must fight, even if it involves heavy sacrifices. ” For me, Angela’s death represents her daughter’s way of freeing herself from her traumas. The bonfire embodies her ultimate decision: let this darkness consume her, or start all over again. For Charlotte, it’s a way of telling her mother that she wants to lead a life different from hers, while knowing that they must remain vigilant and protect themselves from monsters. Besides, you have to kill the mother to free yourself from her shadow.

146 CHAR Hazel Doupe House Int.  Screen Grabs "samhain" : Interview with director Kate Dolan

Ultimately, samhain appears to us as a tale about the quest for identity and how to (re)build oneself after a tragedy. Like two concomitant phenomena, Angela sees her body and her mind transform to the rhythm of her daughter’s evolution. ” When you struggle with mental illness, you almost have to hit rock bottom to come back up, and you see that with the mother and her past that is the most destructive in this family. Somehow it’s like she needs to go through self-destruction to rise from the ashes [rire]. On the other side of the mirror, if Charlotte struggles to know who she really is, she manages to find herself by taking the risk of losing her mother forever, in the name of her own freedom. ” I think it’s the very purpose of adolescence, to manage to build a solid healthy base. Even if you try to reinvent yourself outside of your family, you can never truly detach from it, the only way is to embrace this truth and learn to live with it. »

Samhain – the origins of Halloween (You’re Not My Mother) can be seen in theaters today.

“Samhain”: Interview with director Kate Dolan – just focus