Interview: Frida Kempff and Cecilia Milocco on ‘Knocking’
It’s hard to believe that Knocking is Swedish director Frida Kempff’s first feature length narrative film. Primarily known as a documentary filmmaker whose work has been screened at festivals such as Cannes, Sundance, London Film Festival, Gothenburg, Telluride and IDFA, Kempff was inspired to make Knocking, which marks her return to Sundance, after she read a short story titled ‘Knockings’ from novelist Johan Theorin. “There was something in the story that connected to me as a woman and how women are treated in society,” she reveals. “So I called [screenwriter] Emma [Broström] and told her, ‘We have to do something with this. Let’s dig deeper into it’.”
Knocking centers on Molly, a woman still reeling from the tragic loss of a loved one. After moving in to a new apartment complex in an attempt to escape her past, Molly starts hearing a continuous, incessant knocking from the ceiling of her bedroom, which she thinks sounds like a call for help or a message delivered in Morse code. As its intensity grows, she confronts her neighbors but it becomes clear that no one can hear what she is hearing. As everyone starts to question Molly, including Molly herself, she is thrust into an unsettling quest to uncover the truth in a world where truth and reality appears to be just beyond her reach.
Although the genesis of the film was taken directly from the short story, Kempff and Broström decided to go a different route when adapting it for the screen. “The original story had two main characters,” she says. “We found it was more interesting to get rid of that and stay only with Molly [for the duration of the film]. Is it real or is this all just in her head?” It makes for more a intense, claustrophobic experience, where the audience’s only gateway into this world is Molly, who we soon come to learn may be an unreliable narrator as she tries desperately to differentiate fact from fiction, real from surreal.
Knocking marks a reunion of sorts between Kempff and the star of the film, Cecilia Milocco, who turns in a haunting and intensely mesmerizing performance as the bereaved and grieving Molly, expressing the pain of her loss with her eyes and, as the film progresses, with her frantic and desperate actions as well. “Frieda and I worked on a short together four years ago,” says Milocco, referring to the 2016 short, Dear Kid, which centered on a mother who starts to suspect her child’s swimming coach of abuse. “We met then and then we didn’t meet for another four years. Then Frida called me for this film.” Milocco initially had her reservations when she was briefed about the project, specifically one element of the character that was changed for the movie. “Molly in the short [story], she’s a little bit older, I think, so I was a little bit [taken aback],” she laughs. “But Frida had other plans for Molly in this film.”
The role of Molly is an incredibly taxing one, requiring its actress to dive into deep, dark places in order to emerge with an accurate portrayal of grief and paranoia. Milocco reveals she and Kempff had frequent discussions about what exactly was brewing in Molly’s psyche. “We had a lot of conversations every morning about what was in her mind,” she explains. “So I always say to Frida, that this was a great part of the work that we did together because it involved a lot of conversations about everything. So every morning, we began with [filming a] scene, but we ended up in conversations about life.” The performance was so demanding on Milocco, that by the end of the filming process, she felt like she had “run a marathon”. “I went to meetings to talk about mental illness, psychosis and everything,” she recounts. “But ultimately, it’s a movie very much about grief. In the end, it ended up being a story about a deep, deep journey of grief.”
For a huge bulk of the film, the camera is directly trained on Milocco’s face in a way that feels almost intrusive; we see every bead of sweat on her forehead, every glance of fear and paranoia that crosses her face, a technique that Kempff refers to as a “dance”. “It was very clear for me from the start that the camera was going to show Molly’s emotional journey,” she says. “So the camera was in a way Molly as well, so the camera [movements] should reflect that. In the beginning, the [camera movements were] kind of steady and then, by the end, when her feelings of paranoia heighten, the camera is dancing with her.”
Working on a narrative film was a change of pace for Kempff, who is more used to the laidback experience of working on documentaries. “We shot [Knocking] for only 18 days, which is crazy,” she recalls. “My experience [with documentaries] is that you’re constantly filming and shooting for years.” Knocking also marks the first time Kempff works with a composer despite her seasoned career in the industry. “The score is by Martin Dirkov, a Danish composer who is just brilliant. He could really reflect some parts of the story and Molly’s journey.”
Despite some of the genre elements that ferociously rear their head in Knocking, Kempff admits she hasn’t always been a fan of the horror genre. “I haven’t really been a fan of horror,” she admits. “This sounds crazy but I always thought that horror didn’t have a meaning. It was just a lot of blood and that’s it. But then I saw films by [Alfred] Hitchcock and many others [that changed my mind]. A couple of years ago, I also saw Jordan Peele’s Get Out and I thought it was amazing because he explored a topic of social change through horror and that was really awesome.”
Up next for Kempff is a sci-fi project she is currently developing. “I’m working on a sci-fi dystopian movie for the moment,” she reveals. “It’s called The Unit. It will have all of the elements in Knocking but [explored] in another way.” She is hoping that Milocco will join her on this project as well. “I will be talking to Cecilia about it later,” she says. “I would love to work with her again.” If it’s anything like Knocking, it will undoubtedly be another unforgettable experience from the duo that will stay on audiences’ minds long after the credits roll.
Knocking will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 29, 2021.