Interview: Mikko Mäkelä on ‘Sebastian’
Sebastian is the second film from writer and director Mikko Mäkelä following his debut feature, 2018’s BIFA-nominated A Moment in the Reeds. A quietly profound and surprisingly moving rumination on identity and desire, Sebastian, which hits select theaters tomorrow, is a far different beast from A Moment in the Reeds, which was a far more romantic film that charted the hidden relationship between a young Finnish man and a recent asylum seeker from Syria. By exploring topics such as sex work and the commodification of art, Mäkelä has crafted a deeply compelling, thought-provoking film that raises interesting questions about creativity and authenticity, all while trusting viewers to come to their own conclusions instead of providing clear answers.
“I think the genesis of it came from me moving to London after university,” says Mäkelä of the inspiration behind the project. “I started to realize just how many young men were involved in sex work in some shape or form, and it seemed that especially with the help of apps and and the internet, it’s become an easy threshold for a lot of people to to cross and it’s become much more commonplace. So I was really intrigued to craft a portrait of someone who is doing sex work out of choice rather than for a lack of them because so often sex workers have been depicted as, or sex work has been depicted as a last resort for someone who has no other options. So that was kind of the initial impetus. But I then also really wanted to combine that with a reflection on storytelling itself, and really looking at the question of who has the right to tell whose stories, and whether you have to have lived experience to be able to write about something, which is a debate that is still very going on so much nowadays.”
At its core, Sebastian follows Max (Ruaridh Mollica), a 25-year-old aspiring novelist grappling with ambition and authenticity. Sebastian marks Mollica’s first time leading a feature film and he manages to prove that he’s more than up for the challenge, delivering a haunting, searing performance as a young man trying to find his way in the world. “Because it’s such a tightly-focused character piece, I always knew it would live or die by that performance,” explains Mäkelä, who knew he wanted to cast an up-and-coming actor instead of a familiar face to avoid any preconceived notions or expectations. “I really wanted to find someone who was quite new to audiences because it is a story of self-discovery. I really wanted the audience to also go on that journey of discovering who this person is, and that we really don’t know anything about him from the beginning. So I didn’t want to go to someone who has proved themselves in previous roles because I didn’t want that baggage. But really from the first tape of Ruaridh, I recognized that there was something really, really raw and compelling about him. He had such a way to grab you as an audience and it was so interesting to look at his expressions, how he was emoting.”
Max’s journey into the world of sex work under the pseudonym Sebastian becomes a catalyst for Mäkelä’s exploration of storytelling and representation. The film not only charts Max’s personal journey, but also critiques the commercialization of art and how it can affect not only the quality of the work but the artist themselves as well. “So much of the film is about making art within a commercial system and how that affects the actual creative process,” he explains. “It’s not just the way in which the art is shaped by the commercial forces but then also how it’s put out into the world and promoted. So a lot of those conversations just came from from conversations that I’ve had with other filmmakers as well. I wanted to very much reflect the art world that I’ve experienced in London myself through the film. Obviously this film is about a writer but so much of it does apply to filmmaking as well. What I was really hoping to do was draw this ironic parallel in the way that the industry is commodifying Max’s writing is not necessarily so dissimilar from the way that he’s commodifying himself as a sex worker as well.”
Eager to make a name for himself in London’s ultra-competitive literary scene, Max often finds himself having to resort to drastic measures, including lying, keeping secrets and burning bridges, in order to get ahead. “There is that burden of representation where you do sometimes feel a bit compelled to not show too many negative aspects of the queer experience or not to show trauma,” he says of his decision to explore a complicated queer character rather than the perfect archetype we’re starting to see more of in films and TV shows today. “And also there is this requirement for a good queer character in order to provide good representation. So it was something that I was really conscious of, but as a filmmaker generally, one of guiding lights is that I’m always more interested in those messy and complicated characters, and I’m not scared of showing potentially unlikable characters because I think it’s much more interesting to watch that then to watch perfect people; where’s the drama there in that sense? There were even some development meetings where I was even asked, ‘Do you like Max?’ but I just felt like that was maybe not the question that I wanted to be asked. I want people to ask, ‘Was I interested in going on this journey with this character?'”
Sebastian had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it was met with critical acclaim and a rapturous audience response. “It was a dream come true,” says Mäkelä of his experience premiering the film there. “It’s the place where every young filmmaker dreams about; getting there one day and premiering your film there. It was my first time there so it was also a lot to take in and wrap my head around. It was really intense; we’d only just finished the film a few days before [the premiere] so to then be presenting it so fresh out of the oven was nerve-racking as well, but it was a brilliant experience. The Sundance team are so amazing at curating that selection, and they have been such long term champions of queer cinema from a time when there was much less of it and when it wasn’t so palatable to audiences either. So it was really great to get to be a part of that tradition, especially in their 40th anniversary year as well.”
In addition to Sebastian, Mäkelä also has a few more projects currently in development, the details of which he decides to keep to himself at the moment. However, with its US release right around the corner and a UK roll-out planned for the next few months, he’s keeping his focus on Sebastian, eager to see how audiences will respond. “I’m excited to see what people think of it.”
Sebastian will be released in theaters in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco on August 2.
Ahmad W.
Aspiring critic and poster designer.