You have probably heard the stories about Julia Ducournau’s new film Raw – people passing out in screenings, throwing up, walking out… But while such things may or may not have happened, one thing for sure is that the acclaimed filmmaker has produced a brilliantly original piece of cinema that mixed a coming-of-age tale with a dose of cannibalism, humour, and college hazing. We sat down with her recently to discuss the film and where the idea came from.

Julia Ducournau and Garance Marillier - Raw

When we first caught a glimpse of the film at last year’s London Film Festival, we were drawn initially by the cannibalism elements, such is our love of the 70’s classics but what we found was something more – more daring, much funnier and more profound. Ducournau knows many people may be put off by such things but explained that she wanted to bring the humanity back to the taboo subject, saying:

“It influenced me in the sense that I wanted to do the opposite – what interested me was how cannibals were treated in the 70’s in films like Cannibal Holocaust… Cannibalism amongst three taboos in humanity with murder and incest is the only taboo that is treated like it doesn’t exist… For example in the 70’s when you see them they are always treated as “they”, from far away like they’re a group of creatures and they come down like zombies and it’s like we kick them out of humanity.”

SEE ALSO: Read our review of RAW here

After writing and directing short Junior in 2011, which won an award at Cannes, and television film Mange the year after, Ducournau took three years burying herself in Raw and taking the time to construct the story as the balancing act of horror, comedy and everything in between was a long journey. On the process, she said:

“I wrote for three years which is a long time and it took me so long because of all the balancing between the genres and to not have one overtaking the other one. But for me the mix is my own language – from when I first making shorts in film school what I did and what came out of me was a mix of genres.”

Julia Ducournau and Garance Marillier - Raw

The film also sees her reunite with actress Garance Marillier, who starred in Junior, but initially, when writing the script, Ducournau blocked her out of her thinking to create a character as best she could, rather than tailoring it to someone specific. But once Marillier read the script, it was evident she was perfect given her unique skills as an actress:

“I didn’t think about Garance right away even though we have worked together before and that we have an established relationship in life but I kind of prevented myself from thinking of her as I didn’t want to be biased when I was writing the story. When I finished the script she was the first one I gave it too but she has what many actresses lack which is a strong physicality and she knows how to work her body very well, even in her clumsiness!”

You can view our full interview with Julia below.

Raw is out in UK cinemas on April 7th.

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