If you are craving a movie that gives you that visceral big-screen experience you love, the Panorama section of the 75th edition of the Berlin Film Festival has you covered out of the gate.
Welcome Home Baby, a psychological thriller from Austrian director Andreas Prochaska (The Dark Valley, Das Boot, Alex Rider) that opened the Berlinale sidebar, stars Julia Franz Richter as Berlin emergency doctor Judith who inherits a house in a village in her native Austria which she did not even know existed from the family that gave her away as a child. To see and sell the property, she visits the house with her husband Ryan. But her aunt Paula seems determined to keep them in the village. And the longer they stay, the more images and emotions from Judith’s subconscious come to the surface.”
Welcome Home Baby “uses genre tropes to confront the audience with questions about trauma, identity, and self-empowerment,” the Berlin Film Festival website highlights. “It is a film that approaches the horror of the incomprehensible via atmosphere, associations, and ellipses. A visually stunning plunge into the hidden depths of a foreign homeland.”
Prochaska wrote the screenplay for the movie with Daniela Baumgärtl and Constantin Lieb. Carmen Treichl handled the cinematography for the film, produced by Lotus Filmproduktion in Vienna and Senator Film Produktion in Berlin.
Ahead of the world premiere in Berlin, Prochaska talked to THR‘s Georg Szalai via Zoom about Welcome Home Baby, how personal it is, why it couldn’t exist without David Lynch, and what made him return to the big screen after such TV work as Das Boot and Alex Rider.
Welcome Home Baby is such a rollercoaster ride for the audience’s eyes, ears, and minds. How important is it for you as a filmmaker to move audiences psychologically and sensually?
It’s been 10 years since I made a movie. I was looking for material that would do justice to the cinematic experience. I thought if I make something for the cinema, then it just has to be a real experience. There has to be a reason why you sit in the cinema, why you see it on the big screen. It’s about creating a physical experience.
For me, the worst cinema experience is when you leave after a movie and you’ve already forgotten it. The most memorable movies for me are the ones that leave question marks open, that don’t solve everything, that just leave you with a feeling in the body and also in your mind.
People have in recent weeks mourned the death of David Lynch. While watching your movie, I wondered how much you must love David Lynch’s work…
This film in this form would not exist without David Lynch and his daring not to answer every question. My biggest problem with most horror movies is that there is always a solution at the end. There is the book or the magic spell that solves everything, and then you ride into the sunset and the world is back to normal. And I just wanted to do something about that.
But it’s always a narrow line. You can, of course, frustrate the audience if you keep too many questions open. I know of films that have a completely open ending and you end up thinking, “What was that?!”
Are there any differences between film and TV in that regard?
‘Welcome Home Baby’
Courtesy of Lotus Filmproduktion/Senator Film Produktion
In television, it has to be great in the first 20 minutes for people to stay on. In cinema, ideally, it’s great from the beginning to the end. But if the last 20 minutes are good and the finale is strong, then you just take that home and forgive a lot of what happened before that. I like some of the reactions to the film. For example, some people said they didn’t know if they had seen a movie or had had a dream.
What has been so attractive to you about TV as a medium?
I’m always looking for new worlds to explore. Taking on Das Boot was an easy decision. How often do you have the opportunity to tell a submarine story? With Alex Rider, the concept of a teenager being recruited to be a spy was pretty bold. And after Das Boot, that was pure entertainment. There are stories for the small screen and stories for the big screen. And when I approach something, I just try to do my best and give it my all.
How exciting is it for you to open the Berlinale’s Panorama program with Welcome Home Baby, which the festival unveiled in January?
I was blown away. We finished the sound mix on Dec. 20. And to know that we were invited to the Panorama was great, because then you don’t have to wait for a year or so but have a date. When we got the message that we should open the section, it really set me ablaze. It’s just a totally beautiful honor.
What was the inspiration for the movie and what was the most important topic you wanted to tackle with it?
Identity. The genesis of this whole story was the experience of a friend of mine who did not know his father, inherited a house and found out totally bizarre things about this man with whom he had never had contact.
What fascinates me is that every child that comes into the world already has a character. How much of that is in your DNA from the generations before you, and can you free yourself from it? The idea that life emerges in you and you are, so to speak, occupied by another existence is somehow fascinating and disturbing at the same time. This may not be immediately obvious, but this is in some way my most personal film.
In what sense?
I don’t want to talk about that. But I also grew up in a small town. I grew up in Bad Ischl. So I know the feelings of people who return, with tradition lurking everywhere.
Andreas Prochaska
Courtesy of Petro Domenigg
How challenging was it to get financing for Welcome Home Baby in Austria?
I always find Austria’s film output impressive for a small country. And I think a film like Welcome Home Baby wouldn’t have had a chance to get financed anywhere else in the world. There is a certain trust they put in you as a filmmaker. Because for a classic genre film, this film is too arthouse-y. I feel our financing system allows for a lot of creative freedom. At the same time, of course, it has challenges and problems like every system. But I feel it makes for a good breeding ground.
Anything else you want to highlight about Welcome Home Baby?
It’s not so important for viewers to “understand” the film. What’s important for me with the film is that viewers experience and live it.
