by Arthur Vincie
When you think of fantasy films, you probably think of Lord Of The Rings, the Harry Potter series, Pan’s Labyrinth, or possibly the Marvel movies. On TV there’s Once Upon a Time, The Witcher, Game of Thrones. These are mostly quite good (except for The Hobbit – life’s too short). These are largely big-budget projects set in a vaguely European setting, often using Medieval lore, swords and sorcery. Often the protagonists are human (or human-like), male, white. These can be very broadly categorized as “Eurofantasy.” Pan’s Labyrinth is an exception, a fairly low budget film ($14M) set during World War II, whose protagonist is a young girl.
But the genre is much bigger than this. In the last ten years alone, Nnedi Okorafor, Saladin Ahmed, Max Gladstone, N.K. Jemisin, Nalo Hopkinson, Aliette de Bodard (to name a few) have written books set in a dizzying array of locales, with worlds and systems of magic built on entirely different principles, featuring a much more diverse cast of characters.
There are also some incredible fantasy films that use different story structures, are set in different cultures, and were produced on lower budgets. If you’re a filmmaker who’s interested in making fantasy films and want to do something different, these films are worth studying. I’ve put together a short list, and after describing them in as spoiler-free a way as possible, I’ll get into why it’s worth hunting these films down. Some of these you’ll really have to hunt for, because they’re not all available for streaming. You can see a video where I discuss a longer list.
THE FILMS
Gabbeh: directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 1996 (Iran).
Makhmalbaf is a giant in Iranian cinema. Gabbeh is set among a tribe of pastoralists in Iran. They herd sheep and goats, and make beautiful hand-dyed and woven carpets (gabbeh is the name of the type of carpet). It starts with an older couple arguing about who’s going to wash and clean their gabbeh in the stream nearby. The gabbeh turns into a young woman, who describes her journey in flashbacks – life in her tribe, her pining for an outsider her father doesn’t want her to marry, her uncle’s own search for love. What’s her relationship to the older couple? The film meanders and weaves in and out of people’s lives, and has this wonderful, poetic sensibility. There’s almost no reliance on special effects, only some inventive editing and cinematography.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives: directed by Apitchatpong Weerasethakul 2010 (Thailand).
This is set in an orchard owned by Uncle Boonmee, who’s dying of kidney failure. His wife and son are dead, and his sister-in-law (his wife’s sister) is the only family he has left. One night, his wife – now a ghost - appears in the middle of a family dinner. Next, his son arrives, reincarnated into something else. But instead of reacting in fear, the family welcomes their relatives, and talks about why they’ve appeared and what this means for Boonmee. The film moves back to what may be flashes of Boonmee’s past life. It relies very little on effects work (some prosthetics), building up its sense of the fantastic largely through cinematography and location choices.
Women Without Men: directed by Shirin Neshat, 2009 (USA).
Neshat is a well-known Iranian fine artist turned filmmaker. This film, based on a novel, is set in Tehran at the time of the CIA-backed coup of 1953 that resulted in the Shah deposing Mossadegh, the elected leader. The main characters are four women, all from different classes and professions, who meet in a magical orchard. The orchard unites them and heals them from the things they’ve suffered in Tehran. There are many layers to the film, and the performances, production design, and cinematography are wonderful.
Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne: directed by Satyajit Ray, 1969 (India).
Ray is probably best known for the Apu Trilogy, a series that chronicles the life (from childhood through fatherhood) of Apu, born into a poor rural family in Bengal, who comes to Kolkata. It’s a very poetic story of the hardships of the rural-to-urban migration and the difficulties of class mobility.
Ray also had a playful side, and it comes out in this film. The titular characters – Goopy and Bagha – are ejected from their respective villages for being terrible musicians. They’re goodhearted but quite hapless. They meet by chance in the forest. As night comes, the forest tiger shows up. Scared as hell, they play together to try and calm him down. This attracts the forest ghosts, and the Ghost King, who likes their music, decides to give them several magical boons. This enriches their lives considerably, and eventually gets them appointed as court musicians to the king of Shundi. But this also puts them in the middle of an impending war between Shundi and the King of Halla, who wants to take over the kingdom with the aid of Borfi the sorcerer. The film is hilarious and yet is also a serious reflection on power and class.
After Life, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, 1998 (Japan).
The film takes place in limbo, where people spend a week after they die. A team of civil servants interview the recently deceased, and get them to pick out a defining moment in their lives. The team then films a recreation of these events and screens them. It’s supposed to be a waypoint for the deceased before whatever comes next. Kore-eda makes very realistic films (Shoplifters came out in 2018) and After Life often feels like a documentary – it’s low key, with very little music, restrained performances, unobtrusive camerawork. The main characters are the team, and their lives are very “ordinary” – get up, go to work, get the dead processed by the end of the week.
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner: directed by Zacharias Kunuk, 2001 (Nunavut).
This is the first film shot entirely in the Inuit language, and is based on the legend of the title character. He’s in a life-long struggle with the leader of his camp, Sauri, and Sauri’s son Oki. It’s a complex story that involves jealousy between Atanarjuat and Oki over Atuat, who Oki wants to marry; a curse passed down from a shaman, Tungajuaq, that affects everyone in the camp; and the ways in which intergenerational feuds lead to vicious cycles. The film is shot in an understated way, with very little music and few effects.
These films are very distinct from each other, made by filmmakers drawing from different cultures and traditions. It’s always dangerous to try to draw parallels between such diverse works of art, especially since I’m not a member of any of these cultures. I’ll look instead at commonalities of technique, with an eye toward what you can adapt for your own work.
CINEMATOGRAPHY / CAMERAWORK
Many of these films utilize wide shots that enlarge the environment and diminish the size of the characters. The camera is either very still or moves fairly slowly. Notice these shots from Women Without Men, Gabbeh, Uncle Boonmee, and Atanarjuat.
In Women Without Men, whenever one of the characters enters the orchard, the camera glides along a stream or a footpath, allowing us to take in the scale of the place:
In Gabbeh, the tribespeople are a small part of the world they inhabit, sharing space with trees, desert, mountains, and animals. The camera tends to linger on these tableaus:
In Uncle Boonmee the characters are a part of the drama, but aren’t necessarily the most important element. The camera is often relatively static, while the characters walk through the landscape:
In Fast Runner, the characters spend much of their time outside, hunting and gathering. Like the pastoralists in Gabbeh, they’re part of the environment, rather than apart from it. In one sequence, we follow Atanarjuat’s escape across an icy lake, pursued by his enemies. It’s worth noting that unlike most Western stories (where the landscape is actively hostile), the characters are at home in the environment, and understand its perils:
A common thread is that humans are part of the world, but not necessarily the drivers of it. Often they’re bound by the karma of their souls and those of their group. They’re subject to the complex changes of the landscape. Sometimes these are metaphors for their political and social condition. This is one way in which fantasy films often code politics and philosophy. Even in the “built” environment, these films often use wide shots to similar effect (see Women Without Men and Uncle Boonmee below).
Notably, After Life doesn’t do this:
The camera stays close to its characters, within the dormitory-like limbo. Nature is usually seen through windows or skylights. Much of the film takes place in a series of identical interview rooms, with the recently deceased sitting across from one or two interviewers. The interviews are framed nearly identically. This emphasizes that to the team, processing recently deceased is a job, with deadlines and goalposts. What to us is a supernatural phenomenon is part of their everyday lives.
In Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne the camera moves around quite a bit, often to make a point or joke. Much of the film takes place outside, but the focus is on Goopy and Bagha (seen here walking through the fields outside of Shundi).
The camera often focuses on their surprised reactions to their unexpected triumphs. Here they’re being escorted around Shundi’s palace, to the displeasure of a minister. They are the most “ordinary” people in the story, despite having magical boons. They aren’t kings, sorcerers, ghosts, or even soldiers.
Sometimes the camera goes in for extreme close-ups - as below, to make fun of the King of Halla. Ray often uses multiple planes; in this shot the King laughs while one of his ministers worries.
What to Adapt: Shooting exteriors is a way to both increase your production value and create a sense of wonder, for little to no location rental or production design cost. Your characters become part of a larger world, more at its mercy than they realize. The environment can also carry some of the weight of the story. In my own film Found In Time, the main characters periodically retreat to a place “outside of time” - shot in Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx. It was one of the few breaks from the cityscape that otherwise defined the film, and it made the film seem larger.
On the other hand, keeping the focus tightly on your characters (per After Life and Goopy Gyne) can help you establish their POV. To the team in After Life, dealing with dead people is just their job. To Goopy and Bagha, the riches of Shundi’s palace and the dangers of Halla are constant sources of amazement and fear.
EDITING – PACE AND STYLE
These films are more slowly paced than a typical Hollywood fantasy. The excellent Mad Max: Fury Road has about 3000 shots in its 2-hours runtime (the cinematographer Vashi Nedomansky, ACE has a fascinating dive into shot length on his site), with an average shot length of 2.1 seconds. Atanarjuat is 2 hours 45 minutes, and much of the film plays out in long takes. Gabbeh is 70 minutes long. Uncle Boonmee has shots that last 30 seconds or longer. Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne is more fast-paced, particularly during the musical numbers. Even so none of these films would be considered “fast.”
The recent spate of “one shot movies” suggests to me that audiences are okay with longer takes, provided that something interesting happens. Whether it’s stunning visuals or absorbing depictions of daily life, something is always happening in these films.
In Atanarjuat, a good deal of time is spent on daily life – hunting, gathering, food preparation, building houses. But this is also when the most serious dramatic conversations happen.
In Uncle Boonmee, Gabbeh, After Life, and Women Without Men (see below), a good deal of time is also spent on the details of daily life. Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne spends a lot of time on food –it’s a key theme in the film, since many of the characters are poor. These parts of life, often cut out of movies, are among the most magical – where we find the miraculous in the everyday. In Boonmee, ghosts appear at the dinner table. In Women Without Men, the orchard provides respite for the characters.
What to Adapt: These films work at the pace of everyday life. This underscores the fantastic elements and makes them more interesting. Having the stories unfold at a slower pace also gives your audience time to get absorbed in the world. It can do some of the exposition for you.
VISUAL EFFECTS
These films use very few special effects, and what effects they do use are either very low-key or deliberately “hand-crafted.” In Women Without Men, Zarin (a sex worker) sometimes sees her clients turn into faceless men:
In Uncle Boonmee, Boonmee sees into the future – when he appears as some kind of animal, a “past person,” in an authoritarian regime. This sequence plays out in a series of stills that contradict his voice-over. The animal suit seems pointedly artificial.
In Gabbeh, the uncle teaches a class on color, by reaching out and “grabbing” elements from the world and showing them to the schoolchildren. This is done through a series of cuts.
In Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, the king of the ghosts appears in front of a star lit by bright bulbs. He speaks in rhyme.
Later, evil sorcerer Borfi makes things appear and disappear (including his own head). Ray used jump cuts to create this effect.
Rather than go for a strictly “realistic” look, these effects emphasize their “larger than life” quality. Wes Anderson used this approach in Grand Budapest Hotel, using miniature effects without any attempt at “realism.” Rather than detract from the story, this use of stylized effects can get audiences more invested in the films. Michel Gondry does this as well in The Science of Sleep. These effects are evocative (poetic) rather than descriptive.
What to Adapt: There may be simple ways to accomplish something in your film – either by using older tricks like jump cuts, or doing something deliberately lo-fi - rather than striving for realism. You can’t compete with Marvel’s budget, so what does taking the opposite approach do for your story?
ACTING
In these films the acting is mostly pretty low-key. Even in Goopy Gyne, everyone takes the world they’re in seriously. This is key to creating believable fantasies. Your cast has to interact with ghosts, gods, time travel, and other things outside our “normal” experience, as though they’re a part of their everyday world. When Boonmee’s wife’s ghost shows up for dinner, everyone quickly comes to accept her presence. The orchard in Women Without Men is something the characters don’t question once they enter. The magic duel at the beginning of Atanarjuat between Tungajuaq and the leader of the band, which kicks off the story, shocks everyone for its results, but not that it happened. The team in After Life are doing a job.
What to Adapt: You may have to explain the rules of the world a bit to the actors and the crew, or at least give them some context so they understand that what’s happening is normal; but the main thing is to have them treat the fantastic elements as though they’re part of their everyday experience.
WRITING
Gabbeh, Uncle Boonmee, and Women Without Men make wonderful use of voice-over. Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne has several excellent songs. The characters in Atanarjuat and After Life constantly try to figure out their life choices. All these films have political and philosophical threads. Uncle Boonmee is deliberately ambiguous, Women Without Men more directly allegorical. One thing that’s constant is that the viewer is largely dropped into these films without much of an explanation as to the “rules.” This may alienate some viewers, but it’s a key strength of the genre. In Lord of the Rings there’s no real explanation for how magic works, why orcs run from daylight, or why elves live forever.
The filmmakers worked within their cultures’ fantasy paradigms, but they were also inspired by other sources. Goopy Gyne is based on a children’s story that Ray’s grandfather illustrated. Boonmee director Weerasethakul’s father died of kidney failure. Atanarjuat is based on an Inuit legend passed on through oral tradition. But writer Paul Apak Angilirq and director Kunuk interviewed elders for their versions of the story, combined them, and then made significant alterations for the script. Women Without Men is based on a novel by Shahrnush Parsipur, which inserted the symbolic orchard in the midst of real events (the coup against Mossadegh). Much of director Neshat’s art and photography focuses on western imperialism (in Iran in particular) and gender, identity and Islam (I’m oversimplifying her work). Kore-Eda (After Life) began his career as a documentarian. One of his greatest influences is British filmmaker Ken Loach, who makes films about working class life, labor rights, and poverty. All of these directors blended their personal, cultural and worldly influences; and it’s clear that they understood the rules of their worlds even if they didn’t explicitly state them in the script. The resulting films are very big conceptually, even if they lack huge budgets or set pieces.
Your script can operate at this level as well, as long as you understand the rules of your world. Fantasy writer N.K. Jemisin has written some excellent advice on world-building. If you want to write something that’s really different, it’s important to be conscious of and reach past familiar fantasy tropes, and understand your personal connection to the material.
CONCLUSION
This is just a small sample of films. I recommend the Brother Quays’ Piano Tuner of Earthquakes; every film by Hayao Miyazaki and the late great Satoshi Kon; the other films I discuss in the video above; A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night by Ana Lily Amirpour, and low-budget horror and sci-fi films, since they operate on similar principles. Be brave, be big, be fantastic!