08/09/2023 - VENICE 2023: The Belgian director keeps viewers guessing in her new film, about a shy girl who may or may not have mysterious powers

One day, Holly (Cathalina Geeraerts) calls up her school. She is not feeling well and wants to stay at home. When a fire breaks out, killing other students, some remember her premonition. They start to believe Holly can make them feel at ease and happier, just by being close to them. We spoke to Belgian director Fien Troch about her Venice competition title Holly [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fien Troch
film profile].

Cineuropa: Seeing a film like yours, one that plays with horror, always makes me happy. Do you like these kinds of stories?
Fien Troch: I am most interested when a film flirts with something. I like to explore genre and see what I can do with it, because it makes me go: “Something interesting is happening.” But I also knew this would be my main challenge because the supernatural element is something I don’t really know. I didn’t want to get lost in clichés, to edge too close to a familiar zone. It’s not my thing. My strength has to do with making people wonder what is real and what’s not, and showing that it’s all about our perception.

It's true, because the moment you see a shy girl with mysterious powers, true or not, your mind screams: CARRIE!
I rewatched it, too [laughs]. It’s an amazing film, but that’s what I mean: there are all these rules that were established a long time ago. Every time things were going in a recognisable direction, I made sure that nothing would happen at all. Maybe it’s all in your head? I wanted it to feel grounded, realistic, and only then does it head someplace else.

Holly feels like a spiritual story as well because you play with this idea of the saviour. And how do people react to a saviour? They destroy them; they use them.
Once you offer something pure to people, something that helps them, they want it. If helping others had made Holly very sick, for example, some of them would have said: “I know, but…” It’s such a universal thing. People get so egocentric so quickly when it comes to their own salvation.

You never completely reveal her motivations, but there is something disturbing about her interactions with one particular teacher. Do they hate each other? What’s going on?
Anna liked that Holly was this pariah, this weirdo. But then she starts talking to people, she comes out of her shell, and it’s not what Anna had in mind. She doesn’t want Holly to become a normal teenager. She hates herself for being so upset that she can’t get pregnant, and when she has this outburst, cursing all these “stupid mothers”, it was important. She finally says what she feels.

It’s one of the main questions in the film: what does it mean to “do good”? Do you only do it for others, or for yourself? Which is totally fine, by the way – I really think you can try to save the world and then eat in a nice restaurant in the evening. But for some people, these things just don’t go together. They certainly don’t for Anna.

There is nothing strange about their world, so I guess you only had these characters to introduce the sense of the unknown?
When we found Cathalina Geeraerts, she looked… so normal. I realised it made things even more interesting. These belief mechanisms are very interesting to me. I watch all these videos on YouTube, and the truth is, if you want to believe in something, if you are wondering if a man can get pregnant, there are a zillion ways for you to assume you are right.

Some people hail her as a healer, but it still feels very small-scale. In a US film, she would be world-famous. Here, the best she can get is a free soft drink in a Chinese restaurant.
For her mother, it’s already a sign of a different, better life. It’s enough to forget that she is just a girl who needs to be careful. Once you attain a certain status, and we see it with celebrities all the time, people forget they are just like them. Holly is only 16, and all she wants is a new jacket and sneakers to feel like a part of the group. To me, when she gets some money, it’s not like she betrays everything. It’s not like she is bad. She has never had anything before. These people, they took away any possibility for her to say: “I don’t know who I am.” She is told who she is, she is told she is special, and she doesn’t question it. Why? Because it’s fun.