Florian Stetter interview

Florian Stetter is an award-winning German film- and stage actor with roles as varied as they are interesting. In the emotional and wrenching Stations Of The Cross (Kreuzweg), a movie about fundamentalist Catholicity which won the STUDENT CRITICS JURY AWARD at last year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, he plays ‘Father Weber’ – a pied piper of Hamelin in religious guise so to speak…

Film-News Claudia A. caught up with the sympathetic Florian to speak about his role in the movie.

Film-News:
Florian, how did you prepare for the part of ‘Father Weber’?

Florian Stetter:
Well, my part in the screenplay spanned about 15 pages of text, so you need to stick to that pretty much. I only found out about three weeks prior to shooting that I got the part, though at first I wasn’t sure whether I was in fact able to accept as I was filming something else at the time. Once I accepted, the only way was to completely immerse in the part and cement the dialogue in my brain.

Film-News:
What did you make of the dialogue after the first time you read it?

FS:
I got to say that I thought the way in which director Dietrich Brüggemann und writer Anna (his wife) wrote the dialogue is rather powerful. Especially in the first scene in which ‘Father’ Weber tries to pull in the children step by step by using a perfidious logic is as fascinating as it is disturbing. He explains to the children why they are ‘Soldiers of God’ and why they got to make sacrifices, why Satan is amongst us at all times, why rock music is the devil’s music and so forth. So for me as an actor, it was a fascinating challenge to be presented with such a strong dialogue in which you could simply let yourself fall into. So yes, after I had learned the dialogue word by word and sentence by sentence, I started to have fun with the part! Particularly as my role is rather static without physical movements it was all the more important to make up for this by applying a strong emotional performance focusing on brainwashing the children.

Film-News:
How was it to work with the children/young adults in that scene?

FS:
Well we had very limited time to shoot the film, and so we had to do this particular scene in one day. Of course, working with children means you can’t repeat take after take, so we set ourselves the goal to have it under wraps after five or six takes at the most.

Film-News:
What was the reaction from the Catholic church to the film in general and your part in particular?

FS:
The amazing thing was that when the film got screened at the Berlin Film Festival, it won both the Catholic and the Protestant Church Awards! It was interesting that we received respect especially from the Catholic Church, though of course they tried to show Dietrich (the film’s director) that Catholicism isn’t really as severe and as damaging as portrayed in the movie. At the same time they were aware that the louder they would protest and insist on being quite harmless really, the more it will most likely backfire. So with that in view the church organisation didn’t give Dietrich too much grief. That said, the film is not meant to point the finger specifically towards Catholicism and say “your religion is the worst” but stands as a metaphor for any radicalisation.

Film-News:
Was this the main reason why you accepted the part, or was it more that, purely from an actor’s point of view, you saw it as a challenge?

FS:
Both really! Also, I’m the father of two children myself and so you aware as to how gullible youngsters can be. Especially when you’re in your adolescence and you’re not quite sure who you are and try to find yourself, that is when you’re particularly vulnerable and easily taken in by adults who try to tell you who you might be and you can be! And of course, ‘Father Weber’ is using this insecurity to brainwash the youngsters.

Film-News:
How was it to work with the youngsters, in particular Lea van Acken who plays the main part of ‘Maria’?

FS:
Lea was incredible, she hadn’t really acted before and performed pretty much on gut instinct rather than trying to ‘play’ her part. I thought it was great and worked well. Of course, the film director guided her regarding this and that, but ultimately Lea made the role her own. What particularly impressed me was the scene between her and me in the confessional, she completely let herself go.

Film-News:
Florian, what is your personal viewpoint when it comes to religion – by that I mean all religion, not just Catholicism.

FS:
I do find it legitimate and it can lead people through troubled times so it can prove healthy. Of course, the question is how far one is willing to go in terms of adopting a faith blindly and is willing to become radicalised.

Film-News:
Many thanks for your time, Florian, and all the best for your future projects.

Stations Of The Cross is released today, January 19th, on Blu-ray and DVD via Arrow Films.
The movie has been reviewed by my colleague Ali Armian - please read Film-News December 2014 releases for more information.