Goodbye Golovin

Please Don’t Tell’s Deidre Driscoll had the pleasure to sit down with Mathieu to ask questions about his film and his creative process.

I read that you are a self-taught writer and director. What or who are some of your major influences in both writing and directing?

I grew up with a camera and a lot of time on my hands. I'm from the skateboarder and Jackass generation and that's what influenced me to buy a camera in the first place. When I started creating content, my influences were more American. I think of legendary music video directors like Joseph Kahn and Anthony Mandler or David Fincher — directors with a very pop and fresh style. Over the years, my inspirations have aligned with the reality of our Quebec market and budgets. Today I draw a lot of inspiration from real life emotions and from directors who are able to portray it in a raw and human way, like Andrea Arnold, Jean-Marc Vallée, Lucas Guadagnino, Sofia Copolla, some of Denis Villeneuve's early work (Un 32 août sur terre, Enemy, Prisoner, Incendies).

You were born and raised in Montréal and, as far as I know, do not speak Russian or Ukrainian — what made you decide to write, cast and film Goodbye Golovin in Ukraine?

I saw a documentary by I-D magazine in 2017, “Exploring Ukraine’s Underground Rave Revolution”, just a year before we shot in Ukraine. This documentary was about the rave culture in Ukraine, but behind it there was a renaissance of Ukrainian youth after Ukraine fought for freedom back in 2014-2015 when they made the revolution against their government that was run by Russians. And no, I don’t speak Ukrainian and I don’t even understand Ukrainian nor had ever been there before but it’s really when I saw this I-D documentary that the hope, strength and disillusionment experienced by this youth inspired me to tell a coming of age story. I also found inspiration behind the architectural aesthetics of Kiev which inspired me a lot.

What was your experience like filming in Ukraine? And what were some obstacles that you faced while filming there?

Yeah there definitely were some obstacles but when I think back, this experience was a bit of a leap in the dark. We wanted an adventure first and that's what we got. I was amazed to meet a youth that resembled us and with whom we could share common values of artistic expression, love for culture and openness to the world. That’s really not something that I was expecting. I must also admit that I find a lot of inspiration in new things and this new environment was very inspiring. The biggest challenge was communication. Naively I thought that Ukrainians spoke English and this was not the case for everyone. The challenge was to direct the main actor despite the language barrier. The most fascinating thing was to realize the universal power of body language, which allowed me to understand which lines of the script the actors were playing without even understanding what he was saying. I was, like, oh yeah that’s the line that I wrote in French first that got translated to English and then translated to Ukrainian and Russian.

(Laughing) It’s like a game of “Telephone”.

Yeah and that was so scary because I really wanted to make sure that the message and the intent was the same when it was being said in Russian and Ukrainian. And the actors were such a big help in terms of understanding what the film was about and making sure that the way they were communicating it was exactly the way it was first written.

There is a line near the end of the film where Masha says to Golovin, “You think by changing the audience, we can change who we are?”. Could you elaborate on the meaning behind this statement?

“You think by changing the audience, we can change who we are?” This is the essence of the film right there in that sentence and it’s probably the most important sentence in the movie. The protagonist has a somewhat bewildered conception of his life or he believes that his problems will disappear only by changing the city or the country but sometimes the problem is within oneself. Ian is basically running away from himself and this is what Masha is trying to gently make him understand.

I’m curious as well, do you see yourself in Golovin’s character at all or in that question?

Yes, I think in a weird way I once felt like him before back in my twenties where I wanted to leave Montréal and find a new place to live and start over and have better opportunities for myself. So that’s the point of view I took writing the film — so, yes definitely I can see myself a little bit, in some ways in that main character.

Your film is a response to the question “when home is a hopeless place, is it more courageous to stay — or to go?”. Do you have an answer to this question?

I still haven't found an answer to this question. It is surely the great human conflict of our planet with the more common occurrence of migrants moving. It's probably one of the hardest choices we can make in life...knowing that none of these options will bring peace and happiness. If you do it (leave), you do it for your children, you don’t do it for yourself because sometimes staying is going to be hard but leaving is also going to be hard. So no, I don’t really have an answer.

There’s a part in the film where Golovin is describing his father’s presence as an institution or regime and now that his father is deceased, the protagonist feels like he can be himself. Since the setting of this film is in a post-soviet country, were you trying to create some parallels or metaphors of Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union and, if so, could you elaborate?

Thank you for pointing out that analogy. Gotta say, the first thing that is important to me is that Goodbye Golovin is not a political film. We never name the city and we never address the political issue but it is indeed a wink that we can afford to make. This parallel refers directly to the revolution of 2014, Ukraines Fight for Freedom.

With Russia’s current invasion of Ukraine, we saw many Ukrainians living abroad return to Ukraine to defend their country and many living there staying to fight instead of leaving. Do you feel that this occupation gives any new meaning to your film’s messaging? Are you still in contact with your Ukrainian cast and, if so, how are they doing?

This conflict certainly brought up a lot of emotions about my experience there. I was scared and sad to think that their lives were turned upside down forever. I'm really sad about that. I think the human notion of the story resonates more since the conflict. We spoke with our friends last spring, at the beginning of the conflict. Since then, our exchanges have been much rarer. I know that our executive producer works as a fixer with international journalists during the war. Otherwise I know that others had put their shoulders to the wheel trying to help women and children flee to Poland when this first began.

Switching gears a little bit — currently you are based out of Montréal, have you been working on any personal projects lately that you would like to talk about?

Golovin gave me a boost in creating fiction projects. I am currently developing two fiction projects — one of which deals with migration and the question of attachment to the land and the sacrifice of leaving everything for a better life. Stay tuned for that one. I’m really at stage number one, and I feel that bigger projects will take more time to get executed so I have to be patient.

We look forward to seeing what you come up with. This next question is something Jean (Jean Malek of Please Don’t Tell) and I ask ourselves frequently. You’re working in the advertising industry and, as a creative individual, how do you balance a commercial career with your more artistic projects?

I find this very difficult to balance, especially because my personal creative work is so different from what I do in commercial work. I still don't have the key to finding that balance honestly. So there’s that. But I financed the film Goodbye Golovin with the advertising and commercial work money so that’s the perk of working in the advertising industry. I self-financed that movie, otherwise I don’t think it would have gotten financed by the Quebec government in any way back then.

And what are some obstacles that you have faced as a creative in your industry?

Oh my God, the financing of the projects. Making a film requires so much budget and the help of so many people. It's a collective act for projects that are most of the time written alone. Sometimes I envy musicians or authors to be able to execute almost the whole work alone.

We’ve reached our last question — here at Please Don’t Tell, we like to play a lot with the topic of secrecy. In your opinion, what is the secret to writing a good screenplay or cultivating a great new creative idea?

In my opinion, the key is to be personal in your approach to the subject matter and themes. I try to approach very personal themes and issues. That’s my secret. I use films as my therapy for myself – but don’t say it! I don’t want anybody to know (laughing).

(Laughing) Right, ‘cause it’s a secret. Well Mathieu, thank you so much again for taking the time to speak with us. Very interesting answers to all of your questions and we’re very excited to see the next creative project that you develop and put out there.

Thank you so much for your good questions and thanks for having me here with Please Don’t Tell.

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