Transilvania International Film Festival has just started and all the festival goers know that late night open-air screenings are happening in Unirii Square, the biggest square of all the medieval cities that existed within Central and Southern Europe, as history says.

One of the films yet to be screened here at the 22nd edition of TIFF is Kompromat directed by Jérôme Salle. The thriller tells the story of a French diplomat, living in Siberia, who has to escape a FSB plot as he is accused of pornography. Kompromat is based on the real story of Yoann Barbereau.

Here are 5 questions Jérôme Salle answers about his latest film.

***

Mr. Salle, Kompromat is a very well written and directed thriller and quite relevant for 2023. Where did this idea come from and how has the project started?

I had in mind a story set in Russia with Russian characters. The first time I’ve been in Russia was 25 years ago, to promote my movies and I had the feeling it was a fascinating country, something the Western countries didn’t know. I also had the feeling there would be a clash, sooner or later, between the very different cultures of Russia and Western Europe. Later on, I learned about what a kompromat is and how this kind of trap could happen to Westerners – because it really happened to a French guy and that’s how it all started. I met him before writing the script. All the events in the story are true, except for the personal aspects of my character’s life. 

It’s been over a year since Russia invaded Ukraine and your film shows some important insights on how the Russian Secret Service operates. Were you already shooting when the war started?

The shoot was already done, I wrote the script around three years ago. I was not surprised at all when the war started, every time I went to Russia I had the feeling that the people leading the country thought the Western societies were decadent, and that they could invade anytime. The movie also talks about how we live on the same continent with people who have such different moral values than the ones we have. 

What was the hardest part of making this movie?

Everything (laughs). Shooting during COVID in a foreign country, with masks worn at all times – it was at the beginning of the pandemic, so we couldn’t drink a beer at the end of the day. We were on set from the morning until dawn, saying goodbye to the crew and meeting the next day. I wasn’t able to recognize half of the crew if I was bumping into them in the hotel lobby. It created a distance, we felt lonely, most of us and it was a long shoot, around 3 months. And I was also producing the movie which made everything even more difficult. 

Gilles Lellouche, the main actor of Kompromat is also a director and he’s quite known in the French film industry. How was working with him?

We have known each other for a long time, he had a small role in my very first movie. When I started the casting, he was my first idea so I had a coffee with him and gave him the script to read.

For him it was tougher than for me during the shooting. He is a very social person, he likes to talk, have dinners with people. It was his first shooting outside of France and he was very easy to work with. He often felt a little lost and alone, like his characters in the movie, so being away from France helped (laughs). 

You worked both in Europe and Hollywood – what do these two very different film industries have in common?

The passion for the job. I’ve been shooting all over the world and it has often been an amazing experience. Even when we don’t speak the same language, we all know what we are doing. It’s pretty fascinating to see the connection transcending the language, the culture.

Laura Mușat

Film producer and founder of ADFR, she dreamed since she was little of having a magazine one day. Alongside her job as editor-in-chief, she writes the interview of the month. She loves animals, jazz music and films festivals.