Rosanne Pel is a Dutch filmmaker who graduated from the Netherlands Film Academy in 2015. She completed her feature debut Light as Feathers in 2018. This fiction film investigates the life of a young rapist, and reveals how the lack of education and authority caused him to disrespect and abuse women. She has since directed Donkey Days, which premiered this year in Locarno.
The 2018 film has been selected to the 10th edition of the ArteKino online film festival, and it is available to stream for free during the entire month of December 2025.
Click here in order to watch Light as Feathers now.
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Eoghan Lyng – You directed Light as Feathers in 2018. Do you view it differently now than you did then?
Rosanne Pel – I’m standing very much behind the film and it’s meaning. As it’s still urgent and – unfortunately – a timeless piece. But recently I have had thoughts about the selection processes a film goes through.
Last august this year my second feature film Donkey Days premiered in Locarno, in Official Competition. After a beautiful premiere it has been a bit of a bumpy ride. The film centres on three white privileged woman and their anger towards themselves and each other. It’s verging on a drama and black comedy. Although it’s received very well by some, it also encountered rejection, being called cold and unsympathetic. Which is open for discussion, but also a part of the point if it comes to the representation of women in cinema and the expectations they endure.
Nevertheless, I can not help wondering if it has been easier for people to watch and include a film with an Eastern European teenage boy who becomes a sex offender, then a film about the discomfort of woman and their pain and rage. I find myself struggling with these thoughts and itheir meaning. Which is also a self-criticism as the maker of Light as Feathers.
EL – Hannah Arendt once said: “Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom”. Is that the central tenet of the movie?
RP – No, but the writings of Hannah Arendt on forgiveness were part of my research during my master at the Film Academie in Amsterdam. They influenced my perspective in making this film. And in fact – all my work. It’s my need for finding a perspective leading to progress and liberation. It’s not as much the tenet of the film as that I use it to take a closer look at the conditions that lead to certain acts.
Regarding forgiveness, we should see it in relation to a specific situation. I don’t approve any of the boy’s behaviour. He is responsible for what he is doing. But in the film, we see a chain reaction based on events that occur over several years, and they form a repeating, violent history. This is the point of the film. This pattern should be broken in order to prevent future aggression and transmit trauma. Forgiveness only applies within certain conditions and they are absent in this film. However; if you look closely to the ending, we could see a glimpse of the possibility there. This is where my hopes lie.
EL – Eryk Walny is tremendous in the film. Did it impact a heavy toll on him during production given the rape his character has to enact?
I asked Eryk to answer this question, and this is what he told me: “It did affect me, but it affected my beliefs in a positive way. From childhood, I was raised on a narrative of respect for women and people in general, which is why this scene was so demanding for me. I had to completely trust Klaudia and the film crew during the filming of this scene. As an actor, I felt good. I felt I was fulfilling my role. As a human being, I felt awful about the scene itself. It was an act completely inconsistent with my beliefs and conscience. Paradoxically, performing the rape scene only strengthened my belief that violence, especially sexual violence, is something terrible that shouldn’t happen’’.
In my experience I also saw that the process of making this film had a heavy impact on Eryk. Not only this specific scene. We had both a huge impact on each others life. And after more than then years we are still closely connected with each other. Our relation has very much shaped beyond the film.’
EL – How did the two stars relax themselves for such a moment of honesty?
RP – From my point of view; the recording of the scene itself has been done into steps, which where actions without emotional content. So this was rehearsed and set. The literal actions are not improvised like in other scenes. There is no nudity, it’s only suggested. And there have been conversations before about the topic and the scene itself. Not only with the actors but also together with their mothers. We created a safe place where it was possible to shoot this scene. In the end the scene was shot in both a relaxed but also a very concentrated atmosphere’’.
Eryk added: ‘’the atmosphere in our film crew was something special. Emotional support and understanding was there, trust was there. That’s why the most relaxing thing was just chatting, laughing and spending time together”.
EL – What were some of the challenges the creative team faced over the three years it was filmed?
RP – We where a four-people crew shooting on 16 mm film. I think the biggest challenge was that it was recorded over such a long time and to stay in tune with each other. We stayed in the village for five shooting periods, each one lasting a month: two weeks of rehearsals and two weeks of shooting. So probably the biggest challenge is to find rest and patience to work like this. The film is a result of very close collaboration between cast and crew, and the input of everyone.
EL – Were you inspired in part by the downfall Harvey Weinstein endured as you created this work?
RP – Not really. As it was my subject during my master which was before this period. I was questioning how sexual violence is portrayed in fiction films: often brutal, absolute and coming out of nowhere. But sexual abuse is sadly a common phenomenon, taking place within familiar settings. When the film was finished, it fell together with the #MeToo movement. In that light the film was also felt as a provocation. Taking not the victims perspective but the one of the perpetrator. I did that for a reason, but it was a point of the film I needed to elaborate on.
EL – Was it challenging working with real-life animals on the feature?
RP – There is a documentary aspect in the film when it comes to the animals. The dogs and cats are in fact the animals who where just around. The dog are from Eryk. The cats of his family. When it comes to the geese; Eryk used to work on this farm in the summer holiday’s and it was located nearby the village where we were shooting. This is how we got excess.
EL – Have attitudes to under-age sex changed in the near-decade since Light as Feathers premiered?
RP – I would very much like to say yes, but I’m not sure. I think there is more awareness but it has provoked to a counter-movement. Think of persons like Andrew Tate who actively try to withhold progress and are against equality.
EL – Eryk has, in a manner of speaking, three mothers. Is it possible to read the feature as a reaction against the lack of paternal authority?
RP – I honestly think they do the best they can to raise the boy. But there is such strong trauma in the family that they can’t do it all alone. There is a lack of a positive male role model. That’s my observation and criticism. I wish that man speak up more and correct each other if it comes to their behaviour against woman. But I feel we are pretty far away from this at the moment.
EL – Was the movie shot on location, and where did you come across this farm?
RP – The film is indeed mostly shot on location. The village is the village where the actors lived, and other shooting locations where nearby. Around the village there where a few geese farms. We did not get access to them easily, but because of Eryk and the connections of my director assistant Robert Woźniak we were able to shoot the scenes with the geese. As unpleasant as the process is, this is how geese feathers are acquired.
EL – Are you working on any projects you can discuss?
RP – My second feature Donkey Days is on festival circuit. As written before I encounter some sort of backlash. I’m puzzled about what that means. Perhaps we need a backlash before moving forward? Within my possibilities, I try to fight for the diversity of artistic cinema, how we make and how we narrate stories. And for the diversity of complex – female – characters. We need this very much. But there is quite a way to go. Sometimes that can make me furious. But let’s put in like this: this gives me fuel to push the boundaries even harder next time!
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Rosanne Pel is pictured at the top of this interview (snapped by Aris Rammos at #TIFF66). The other image is a still from Light as Feathers.
