Alicia Duffy Director of ’All Good Children’

She smiles at me, and I can see the excitement in her eyes whenever I mention the title of her first feature, All Good Children. Alicia Duffy participated in several international film festivals with two short films made during her years at the London National Film and Television School: Numb and Crow Stone. Her third short, The Most Beautiful Man in the World was BAFTA-nominated, and was also in the Official Selection at Cannes in 2003. All Good Children is now part of the Directors’ Fortnight, where it will be screened as a world premiere. The director can’t wait to see how audiences will react.

She was inspired about five years ago by a novel, The Republic of Trees, written by Sam Taylor. It would have been very difficult to adapt, so she took only elements of it. "I was kind of inspired by the tone more than the narrative", she recalls, adding later that "mood in this film is very important, the atmosphere of being in a kind of complete world". All Good Children is set in the countryside of northern France, and more than half of the film was shot in the forest. The mystical presence of the forest has a strange appeal both visually and in the sense of being able to convey a special atmosphere. "I guess there is some creepiness in the film, but there is quite a lot of joy in it, I hope", notes Duffy when asked about the landscape.

All Good Children focuses on Dara (Jack Gleeson), a 12-year-old boy who moves from Ireland to the French countryside with his brother after their mother’s death. Being in an already vulnerable state, he is also at that delicate age between child and adulthood. He soon develops a sort of attachment, a fascination with a local English girl (Imogen Jones). It is at first quite magical, but then the girl starts to lose interest in him. "It was good to explore that visually", the filmmaker tells me, "I had a really wonderful experience with all my actors". She found Imogen at the school in her neighbourhood. The girl has never acted before and behaves very naturally in front of the camera. Jack has acted quite a lot, which is good, because he is in nearly every shot.

The shooting was a challenge from several points of view. Alicia Duffy thinks that one of the greatest problems for all directors in such situations is to actually be trusted. "I was really glad, that all my actors trusted me. The greatest challenge, however, was probably putting together a crew from so many different countries", she states. The film is a result of a complicated co-production. "It was very interesting working with people from several countries with different working practices and different backgrounds. It probably was a good experience for the crew, but tough for the director", she affirms, smiling.

As for the working process, it took about 5 or 6 weeks to shoot the entire film. The director chose one location and then found all the rest within a very small radius. "That was very important to me, that everything was in this one place", says Duffy. "I kind of tend to work with what I have in front of me. I do storyboard but then actually I put that aside and I try and work with what’s actually happening. It is hard to make [the crew] understand why are you changing and shooting something else." The film was shot mostly outside and the weather was constantly changing. "Even if I like to work with what I have, that was quite challenging", she admits. Although having to adapt to the environment, she stuck to notes made beforehand about sounds, music and the experience. The film’s music was written by Steve Stapleton. It was the filmmaker’s first time working with him, but they all worked closely with the editor; "It was a very good experience doing the sound of the film”, notes Duffy.

I found the pictures and description of All Good Children gripping from the start, but as Alicia Duffy told me about the making of her first feature film with so much modesty and fondness, I got even more curious to see the result. At the premiere, we will be able to explore this magical world of the children, and have the chance to meet the actors, some members of the crew and the director herself in person.

by Erzsébet Plájás