Interview: Producer Olga Szymanska on the Horror, Humor, and Politics of DEMON

On Friday, September 7th, The Orchard released Marcin Wrona’s final film, Demon, which explores the dybbuk folklore amidst the chaos of a modern Polish wedding. Daily Dead recently had the opportunity to speak with Demon producer Olga Szymanska about the film’s theatrical origins, sociopolitical leanings, the challenges of shooting Wrona’s ambitious story, and more.

Great to speak with you today, Olga, and congrats on Demon. Can you discuss the process you and Marcin went through in order to get this made, and how he went about adapting the original stage play for the film version?

Olga Szymanska: I will begin with the inspiration that we had. It was just before the first movie about the Polish-Jewish connections came out, and that aftermath was the idea that Marcin wanted to explore. We felt the subject of our two nations living together was unexplored. At first, he was interested in one of the theater plays here about this huge tragedy where Jews were burned in the barn by Poles, and how that was a very inconvenient story for us Poles.

We needed the rights for that theater play, but they were not available. The guy who wrote the play said, “There's another play you should watch,” and that was Adherence by Piotr Rowicki, which was a modern story of the dybbuk, and we thought it was a perfect base for what we wanted to do, especially because Marcin was always interested in doing something with the dybbuk folklore.

So we got the rights for the play, and the first version of the script was very close to the play, but then we thought it was too theatrical, and Marcin thought that it would be interesting to set it at a wedding, where it’s just 24 hours of this craziness, as well as make it a horror movie. When you think about possession, if you saw ghosts on your wedding day, how would you behave? You would rather not believe in it, so that's the funny part of this movie. We have the parts of the horror, we have the parts of the drama, as well as the comedy, which is direction for the possession that people cannot believe and try to laugh at.

Speaking of the comedy elements to Demon, for half of the movie, we see the bride’s family running around trying to convince people that nothing out of the ordinary is happening, to downplay Piotr’s affliction. Would you say that response is customary in terms of how those in Poland would react to a situation like this—are they closed-off or receptive to those possibilities?

Olga Szymanska: We wanted to talk about this idea of rejection, with this small society of people who know each other very well and a stranger that is coming into this community from somewhere else. We don't really know much about him, and so their response to what happens to Piotr is reflective of that closed-mindedness that can happen whenever the unknown comes into our world. It’s very universal, but we also thought it was the perfect way to add some comedic breaks so that you could get a reprieve from the horror of the story.

You mentioned how these atrocities happened to people being burned in barns and now, in retrospect, looking at how the wedding itself was staged and how everybody comes together in that barn environment, that makes things so much more powerful. Was that a conscious connection for Marcin to make? 

Olga Szymanska: That's the interesting thing with Demon. Even though I knew the script, and I was with this project from the very beginning, sometimes I’m astonished to learn something new about it whenever I'm watching it again and again, even now. You realize some things have a second meaning after a while, and I can’t speak to how intentional it was, but I would say Marcin definitely wanted this parallel.

For example, there this a scene where the bride's brother is asking everyone to go back into the barn, which was this innocent moment. But looking at how that moment fits into the rest of the story, it now becomes this meaningful connection to what happened during the war, but it wasn't intentionally done in the first place.

I have a pretty solid understanding of what the filmmaking culture is like here in the States, and so I’m, curious about what that climate is like over in Poland? Is there a really strong filmmaking community and a lot of resources available there?

Olga Szymanska: It is very different [in the US] than it is here. The whole process in Poland is, if you want to make a movie, you can either do it commercially where you have the investor or big producing companies involved, but for art house cinema, you have to go through public financing via the Polish Film Institute.

First, you work on your script and get it to the point where you have the version that you're happy with, and you send it out when you apply for the funds. Then, you have the selection process, where they give you their recommendations and notes, and if you want to receive the funds, you have to find a way to work them into the script. Then, the whole process starts again until they have a version they’re happy with, and you can go make your movie.

With the first version that we used when we applied for the funds, we got some notes back on things that we needed to change, so Marcin used that process to his advantage. He had this idea of changing the whole script from a regular adaptation of the play to being inspired by the play. It wasn't a horror film originally, either; it was Marcin's idea to make it into a horror movie because he thought that would work better. And then we got our approval.

On paper, Demon would seem like a very easy shoot; it’s a one-location story contained within a 24-hour period. But once you watch the film, you realize how ambitious it really is, as there are a lot of elements to pull off between the cast, the story, and all the weather elements as well. Did you find it to be a challenging process? 

Olga Szymanska: It was very tough. As I said, the first idea that we had, where we were going to adapt a theater play, where it was going to be one location—that wasn't going to be all that difficult. But then it turned out to be very difficult, because Marcin came in after rewriting the script with the ideas of doing it with a wedding, and mostly during the nighttime and in the rain, so all those elements made it much more difficult. We also were looking for a location for about four or five months, so that was another challenge.

Once we started shooting, we realized how demanding the schedule was going to be, especially because we shot in the nighttime. Everyone was exhausted. For the actors, they had to play in wet clothes and we were constantly going back to the atmosphere of the wedding, where everyone is drunk, sweaty, wet, dirty, and all covered in mud, so it was a huge challenge for everybody. There was a lot of tension because we only had 23 days to shoot everything.

The shoot was the most difficult for Itay and Marcin, just because Itay was mentally possessed for a few days, and Marcin was right there with him. It’s a lot of energy to keep up, and then you have to recover quickly because of other things we still needed to shoot. I do think it was the most difficult set that we had ever worked on.