Julie Schroell is a filmmaker and audiovisual artist living in Berlin. She started her career by directing a series of commissioned films, such as “The Farmer’s Blues” (2011), in which she set out to portray the remaining farmers of her home country and discover how they cope with, and adapt to, the rapidly changing socio-political climate. The film was selected at numerous festivals around the world. She has since directed and produced several documentaries for major broadcasters, including RTL Luxembourg, France Télévisions, RTBF, and Al Jazeera. “River Tales (“Cuentos del Río”) marks her first independent feature length documentary.

“River Tales” is Luxembourg’s submission to the Best International Feature Film category at the 2021 Academy Awards.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

JS: “River Tales” tells the story of Yemn and his young theater students in a remote village on the San Juan river in Nicaragua. While the building of a new interoceanic canal in the region is announced, the theater group prepares a new play about the history of their river. The mythic San Juan has its source in the lake Cocibolca and together they form a natural aquatic transit route that rapidly became a desired gateway for conquerors, pirates, and businessmen from all nations and times.

While their families struggle with poverty and obligation to migrate in order to make ends meet, the kids are getting ready for the final show. Between reality and fiction, the kids reflect upon essential questions: What is their true identity? What can they learn from history? And at a time where freedom of speech has been repressed and a people’s revolt starts brewing, where is their country going to?

W&H: What drew you to this story?

JS: I was introduced to the Chinese canal project in Nicaragua in 2015 when I visited a friend living in the so-called “canal zone,” a two-kilometers-wide corridor following the proposed canal route in Nicaragua. At the time of my visit, people said that everyone who lived in that zone would be displaced.

My background as a historian with a passion for Latin America and geopolitics made me want to dig deeper. I decided to travel along the canal route to know more about the project, the people, and their hopes and fears related to the canal.

One part of the population was looking forward to its implementation and saw in it a source of economic development. However, many others were afraid of losing their homes, and afraid of the environmental consequences — such as the destruction of Lake Cocibolca, the biggest sweet water reservoir in the region.

The foundations for a documentary film were laid. But as I went deeper into the research, things changed during the months that followed. The canal turned out to be an old myth: more than 72 projects have been planned in Nicaragua in the last 500 years, all of them failed. I went through a huge amount of written archives about the canal history and realized that the canal-that-was-not has infiltrated the national imagination and consciousness. I became more and more interested in the impalpable reality of the canal project.

The more I understood the context of the canal project in contemporary Nicaragua, the more I wanted to make film where art becomes a tool to make children engage in their history and understand how it shapes their present life. In a country where freedom of speech has become suppressed, Yemn has created a sanctuary for open discussion and critical thinking.

W&H: What do you want people to think about after they watch the film?

JS: “River Tales” tells a political subject with an original, artistic approach. While rehearsing a new theater play, the children of El Castillo learn their own history. And the spectator learns from it as well.

Symbolically, Yemn’s theater workshop stands for the importance of access to arts and culture anywhere in the world. Art can heal! For us, Yemn’s work might seem harmless and inoffensive. In reality, Yemn has created a sanctuary for open discussion and freedom of speech in a country with increasing authoritarianism.

Furthermore, the film is an immersive experience with the everyday life of these marvelous children and the less beautiful traces that centuries of colonization and exploitation have left for them.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

JS: It was a big challenge to organize and shoot a film thousands of kilometers away from home and adapt to the heat, the humidity, a different language and culture, and a different concept of time and space. At the same time, we had to respect the production rules and conditions from Europe, such as the number of shooting days, the permits, etc. The realities are so different in Nicaragua and everything takes a long time. El Castillo and the Indio Maiz reserve on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua are difficult to reach and you have to travel by small boats.

Furthermore, the region of the San Juan River, located at the border with Costa Rica, is very militarized. The military stopped us many times, and it would take endless phone calls to be able to go on the river. Thankfully Frank Pineda, the cinematographer from Nicaragua, had the necessary relations to help us pass the military posts.

The lack of clean water made us feel sick and the crew sometimes felt like [they were] in Werner Herzog’s “Fitzcarraldo” movie, while shooting in the jungle in between snakes and crocodiles.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made. 

JS: The film was funded by the Luxembourg Film Fund, which is the official institution of the government’s support for audiovisual productions. Together with Jesus Gonzalez from Calach Films, we first applied for funding in 2015 after my first field trip. The project was not immediately financed; we had the readjust certain aspects of the script. The second time, we received a positive answer.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

JS: Since a young age I have been very interested in watching documentaries and reading stories about other cultures and realities. I remember the strong effect that a certain number of films had on me when I was a teenager. For example, “Megacities” by Michael Glawogger, or “Dancer in the Dark” by Lars von Trier. The feeling those films left on me was incomparable. I wished I could do the same later in my life: tell stories and make films about human and social issues. Tell the story of people that don’t usually have a voice — films that would transform people.

W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?

JS: Making a film is like a rollercoaster. There are so many ups and downs, so many moments where you don’t know how to go on or what comes next. The best advice I got was when somebody told me that “the solutions come.” You shouldn’t give up, and when you work hard, the answers to your questions will come. You have to be patient. The most important thing is to keep going and having a working rhythm and sticking to it.

In my opinion, the most difficult thing as a film director is to be able to master the different stages of the making of the film. You get so much advice and input from different people during the process, that you sometimes forget your own ideas. As you listen to the others, I think it is super important not to forget your own goal and stick to it.

W&H: What advice do you have for other women directors?

JS: From what I have experienced and know for myself is that women, in comparison to men, question themselves more in the process of creating and sometimes it is difficult to overcome their doubts. Also, when I do a movie, I really want to be sure to know every aspect of the story, get the global picture and then choose, with finesse, my personal point of view. Men tend to be more self-confident about what they do and materialize an idea faster — they don’t question themselves, and they move on to the next project. These are stereotypes, of course, but I think that there is a certain truth to this observation.

On the other hand, I think that these differences have a big impact on the outcome of a film. What can seem like a hurdle can also be a force! I think that molding the project with all the details or rethinking it again and again pays off at the end. The film is complete, the story is deeper, and the storytelling is subtle.

There should be more films directed by women, because these films are other experiences than those directed by men. Also, women are often more interested in smaller stories which are closer to reality. The world needs more films like that!

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

JS: I really like the Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman because she is the first to create feminine cinema in the ’70s. In her film “Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles,” she shows the everyday life of a woman in a way it was never shown before. In a male-dominated industry it was a big revolution to relate to the place of women in the social hierarchy and work with long static shots and feminine aesthetics.

From the contemporary female filmmakers, I am a huge fan of Eliza Hittman’s and Céline Sciamma’s movies. These women tell strong stories with the subtle sensitivity of women authors.

W&H: How are you adjusting to life during the COVID-19 pandemic? Are you keeping creative, and if so, how?

JS: During the first lockdown, I took the time to read and develop new projects. I am still in that stage but thinking about entering the production phase soon. I hope the pandemic will not be too much of an obstacle. The advantage of the documentary form is that you work with smaller crews.

W&H: What does it mean to you to have your film in the running for an Oscar in the International Feature category?

JS: I admit that I was taken aback when “River Tales” was put forward recently as Luxembourg’s entry for the Best International Feature Oscar. I didn’t know that the film could be eligible for the award, which is generally won by fictional dramas. It is a big honor and challenge for me.

“River Tales” is a small film, a documentary with a small budget and tells the story of a part of the population that doesn’t get a lot of attention and media coverage in usual times. It is a great opportunity for the visibility of these people and their struggles.

W&H: The film industry has a long history of underrepresenting people of color onscreen and behind the scenes and reinforcing — and creating — negative stereotypes. What actions do you think need to be taken to make the film industry more inclusive?

JS: The racial discrimination in cinema and film goes hand-in-hand with the segregation in society. If I think of the films we watched in film school, where black people were played by white people with paint on their face, it still really shocks me.

I really support and admire the people’s rights movements and institutions all over the world and their efforts to create a more equal society in a world still dominated by conservative white male mentalities.

Personally, I am interested in telling stories about underrepresented groups in our society and can hopefully contribute in this way.