Sci-fi and fantasy fans can soon rejoice in another intrepid YA heroine as “Vesper,” the Lithuania-France-Belgium co-production from directors-writers Kristina Buožytė and Bruno Samper, makes its w…
Sci-fi and fantasy fans can soon rejoice in another intrepid YA heroine as “Vesper,” the Lithuania-France-Belgium co-production from directors-writers Kristina Buožytė and Bruno Samper, makes its world premiere in competition aton Saturday. The Czech debut marks a busy start to the month for the filmmakers. They will also present the film at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in Korea and the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival in Switzerland.
Celebrating the premiere in the Czech Republic makes sense for the directors, who met in Prague in 2004, during a FAMU workshop about interactive storytelling. At the time, the Vilnius-based Buožytė was a cinema student and Samper, from Montpellier, was presenting a videogame he had developed. Their previous collaboration, “Vanishing Waves” premiered in Karlovy Vary’s East of the West competition in 2012.
Even though the action of “Vesper” takes place in a grim future, Buožytė and Samper consider it to be a film about hope, and something that provides an important message for the young generation, who constantly hear that the world is dying and that there is no future. Samper says, “Young people don’t merely want to survive, they want to live. The pandemic was an important reminder of that.” Buožytė agrees.
The live-action scenes were shot in natural locations, mainly around Vilnius. Finding the fairytale forest that they wanted took nearly a year. But shooting outdoors came with its own set of problems. Samper confesses that one of the most challenging elements of the shoot was the spring weather in Lithuania. He says, “One day we had snow, storm, rain, hail and finally sunshine in the same shooting day.” For Buožytė, it was shooting in COVID time that most tested their resources and abilities.