Eicke Bettinga Director of "GASP"

Eicke Bettinga, director of the short film “GASP”, is short film only a provisional period for you until you get to do your first feature film? No, not at all. I love short films. It is a great artistic feature with its own artistic needs and devices and incredibly challenging because of that. But it is true that the next step for me personally would be a longer film where I can go into details and develop the characters a little bit more.

Then tell us about the main character in “GASP”. Do we have to know why the boy can’t feel? No, I didn’t want to do a stringent story whatsoever. And again, that’s the good thing about short films – I didn’t have to give a reason. I was able to play around with the main idea of not being able to feel and how I would like to make that visible to the spectator.

“Not being able to feel” – how did you come across that subject? It touches upon a strange trend among young people, called the “Fainting Game”. That’s where I at least got the inspiration for the first scene with the plastic bag. I consider that a very peculiar means to achieve strong feelings. However, the film is not supposed to be a social critique at all.

So what about the relation between the protagonist and the other boy he meets in the heart of the forest. What is that all about? Well, again I didn’t want to make a clear statement really, there is room for interpretation. But the most important thing is that it gave a clear ending to the story. I didn’t want just to leave it hanging there but go the full circle. So it ends with destruction and relief at the same time.

by Franziska Knupper