Klara's Dance

Jan Fabris, Director

Q: What inspired you to make a black and white film in today’s age of color filmmaking?
A: Inspiration for making a black and white film came from the success of several black and white films in the 2010s and 2021, like Cold War and C’mon C’mon. While finishing the script for Klara’s Dance, we noticed that it was the first time that no colors were mentioned. This fact led to considering a black and white format.

Q: What are the challenges you faced while filming in black and white and how you overcame them?
A: Since there were no colors available, the main challenge was to somehow remain visually expressive. So, we tried with other techniques - especially with contrast (in the means of light and shadow) and different patterns&textures. Regarding this (and beside cinematography of course) a lot of effort was put in costume and production design as well.

Q: How do you think the black and white format enhances the storytelling in the film?
A: Very frequently color films use black and white sequences to express either flashbacks, different timelines, some surrealistic perceptions or similar. Or it can also happen the other way around. Unlike mentioned above, we didn’t want to put any emphasis on those sequences, but we thought that a uniform black and white format alone might enhance such storylines the most.

Q: How will you compare Klara’s Dance with your previous black and white film Ten Till Seven? A: Ten Till Seven is an homage to the old film-noirs and therefore we also tried to put the story in some other period of time. Visually we decide to make it truly noirish, with black and white low-key look. On the other hand, Klara’s Dance is a contemporary story told in black and white mostly because the main character is constantly dealing with her past.