“If you want to tackle the subject from the pain, from the most crass feelings of the characters and their experience, I think you have to take that kind of atmosphere and that tone, which is more austere and harsh. To do that, in order to portray these people, you have to bring them up a bit like statues—a bit like in an Ozu film, or Kaneto Shindo work—to elevate them in this more heroic sort of way; as heroes in a way. This was clear in terms of the atmosphere of the film.”