by Dov Kornits
“The subject for the film really came from visiting the place,” says Sydneysider Alastair Newton Brown when we ask why he shot his debut feature Here Be Dragons in Serbia.
“About six years ago, my good friend and cinematographer, Marc Windon, moved to Serbia, so as to be able to work in Eastern Europe, which has a bit of a booming industry now. He called me one day and goes ‘you have to come see Serbia – there’s a shot in every direction you point the camera. We have to make a movie here!’
“At the time, I was reading a lot of John Le Carre and Simon Wiesenthal books and I go there and immediately see the potential for doing something interesting, but I was also keen for it not to just be what filmmakers usually do in Serbia, which is use it as a generic, cheap backdrop for some crummy action film.
“Having spent many years as a history teacher prior to all this, I had taught about the Balkans extensively and was keen to do something that both an outsider and a Serbian/Balkan person could watch and appreciate. And seeing as nobody had recently tackled the murky world of war crimes investigations in the Balkans, I figured that was the subject to write about.
“It seemed so ripe and untouched. And a perfect world from which to be able to tell an entertaining and universal, but also contained story.
“In researching the topic, I came across Orson Welles’ film The Stranger, about a Nuremberg war crimes investigator who goes to America to hunt an escaped nazi war criminal, who has ingratiated himself in this little all-American town in Connecticut. This film, coupled with the plethora of amazing stories and characters I read about from the UN’s time hunting war criminals in former Yugoslavia, served as great inspiration.
“At some point in all of that, Here Be Dragons hit me like a lightning bolt. I knew I had a story that would hold my interest for years, and could simultaneously serve as a cool, entertaining detective film, while also satisfying my desire to say something much deeper and hopefully universal to those who were looking for it.”
Here Be Dragons starts during the Yugoslav wars, as British soldier David Locke (Nathan Clark Sapsford) encounters the embodiment of evil in paramilitary commander Ivan Novak. Fast forward a number of years and David is now a war crimes investigator for the UN, and Novak, presumed dead re-enters his life.
We begin our chat with Alastair Brown with the obvious question – where are the dragons in Here Be Dragons?
“It’s a title which I hope takes on personal significance for audiences after watching the film,” he answers cryptically. “I actually lifted the phrase from medieval maps. It is said that maps from medieval times had ‘here be dragons’ inscribed on the territories which had not yet been explored. Sometimes, actual dragons or sea monsters were drawn, intended as a warning to the would-be explorer to proceed with caution. For me, the meaning in relation to the film points to the challenges of not only wading into unexplored lands, but also those deep, dark places within oneself and society to which we are not encouraged to go. The famed psychoanalyst Carl Jung said that ‘no tree can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell’, which I interpret to mean that we can’t be a force for good or change in this world, unless we realise deeply that we are also capable of being heinously evil. This has proven to be true time and time again throughout history. If there were such a thing as a map of our psyche or soul, I think ‘Here Be Dragons’ would be signposted all over that area down there in your gut that only exposes itself under very specific circumstances. It’s important we regularly recognise this and talk about it openly. Otherwise, it manifests itself in all the horrible ways we see going on in many parts of the world today.”
How did you work on the logistics involved in being an Australian and making a film in Serbia?
“I’ve never made a feature film in Australia, so I wouldn’t know the difference between there and here. Perhaps in some ways, it was easier to make it there. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, there’s a certain ‘looseness’, if I can call it that, about working in Belgrade in particular. People are fairly laid back and keen to help out. I’d also been to Serbia and scoped it out a couple of times before we finally went in to shoot. On those reconnaissance missions, I met some great people who were very positive about my making a film there, but also a little worried about the subject matter. At some point in pre-production, I honestly thought that based on subject matter alone, we were going to be shut down. Though, once we got into the swing of things, people understood that I wasn’t some proselytising Aussie and that the story was as much in service of a Serbian/Balkan perspective of the history as it was of an outsider’s. So, it was pretty smooth sailing once we’d hired a little office and put the production team together. Of course, at the time, I had no idea that weeks later, the world would fall apart mid-shoot due to Covid, but that’s another story…
“The other aspect which made me more confident about being a total outsider shooting there was that Marc Windon [above, on location with Alastair], our cinematographer and co-producer, was living in Serbia at the time. I grew up with Marc in Sydney – he knows my vibe and we have quite a similar taste in films, so he was a huge ‘on the ground’ asset to have in helping organise things in advance and help put a great production team together so that I could focus more on directing. It’s interesting, because the Serbian film industry is a really small world – there’s a real scene going on there, particularly with actors. Once you know just a couple of people, you come to know everyone quickly. And, on the whole, they’re just really lovely, deep-thinking people who want to be involved with authentic work and help make the experience as painless as possible.”
How did you manage to get an editor such as Oscar nominee Mark Warner on to the film?
“I actually didn’t know any editors in Australia, so during post, I was assembling the film myself, knowing that at some point I’m going to have to find someone to make sure I wasn’t screwing it up! Mark Warner was suggested to me by the General Manager at Soundfirm, Shaun Richards. I had no idea who Mark was at the time, but was astonished to find that the editor of The Devil’s Advocate among other classics, was living and working in Sydney! Shaun introduced me to Mark, who it turns out is a wonderful and extremely knowledgeable man. He watched my cut of the film and really liked the project and where it was headed. We basically hit it off straight away and the rest is history. It was delightful working with Mark. He comes from a seriously talented film family and is full of these amazing stories from his time growing up and editing films for household named directors/producers in Hollywood.”
Can you discuss your relationship with screenwriter John Collee (Happy Feet, Hotel Mumbai, Master & Commander), and also with relation to this particular film?
“I first met John through a mutual friend around twenty years ago and asked him for advice on becoming a screenwriter. He told me the best thing to do was to go and get a life! Soon after that, I actually ended up travelling to Europe for what was supposed to be a year, but ended up being eleven, first living in Scotland and later the Middle East while working as a history and politics teacher. During that period, I kept in touch with John, sharing with him all these little adventures I was having. I think he was impressed that somebody actually took his advice literally, and when I finally returned home to have a real go at working in the industry, John generously agreed to take me on as an apprentice, a job which was eventually sponsored by Screen Australia under their ‘enterprise people’ funding stream… So in the end, I had this wonderful, long, first-hand training period, working very closely with John – and producer Andrew Mason as they were both collaborating with Hopscotch at the time – learning all the ins and outs of screenwriting and the business.
“I guess this gave me the perspective and confidence needed to be able to write and make Here Be Dragons. John was a huge help through the scripting process, providing notes and suggestions along the way. I really feel very lucky and grateful to have been able to get his feedback and advice. He was so supportive of us making the film and continues to be a champion of the final product.”
Your career trajectory isn’t traditional in terms of breaking into the film industry. Can you discuss that?
“I’ve always wanted to write stories and make films, but realised very early on that nobody is going to hand a career to me. Films are expensive to make and writing well is a very hard thing to do, perhaps the hardest part of the whole process. I think working as a high school teacher through my twenties, particularly overseas, provided me with a confidence upon which to just go and do things which may seem risky. I feel my sense for adventure expanded while living abroad. And this transferred nicely to the kind of attitude one needs to be able to make movies. Teaching history and politics year in, year out also gave me huge insight into the story of humanity and the motivations of humans. School children are a harsh audience and being a teacher forced me to describe complex issues that inadvertently probably refined the analytical side of my brain, which is one of the main muscles for being a successful screenwriter. There’s all this information you’re trying to condense into a finite document that must portray all the depth, character and structure needed for a successful film, which is kind of like how history is taught in a 40 minute period to children – if it’s not entertaining, interesting, structured and contextualised in a way that fits through the lens in which they see the world, like an audience with much to choose from these days, you lose them pretty quickly!”
What’s next? Are Australian stories something you’d like to explore?
“Definitely. I’m developing a couple of Australian stories as we speak. One, in particular, is a political thriller which follows an unlikely love story through different time periods and locations in Australia and abroad – a bit like The English Patient meets Sicario. It’s very international, but also contained and set against a backdrop of a hidden and pretty shocking Australian twentieth century history, which I certainly didn’t know much about before I read into it. I’ve also written a script based on the experience of the Yazidi people dealing with the Islamic State in Iraq between 2014-2018. Many people don’t realise what was going on there. And I understand why – living in Australia, these issues are far from our minds. But in this script, based on countless true stories, there are stark reminders about the nature of existence and our relationship with each other for everyone to think about.
“I see history repeating itself everywhere I look, and I’d like to make stories which nudge audiences in the direction of thinking about that. Cinema done well is scarily powerful. It has a way of personalising ideas – the filmmaker can sort of hypnotise the audience and make them believe that an idea is their own – a bit like in the film Inception, which I actually think is a film about filmmaking. This kind of power can be wielded to do good and bad. I aspire to create films which convey ideas of personal responsibility into our minds. Ones which help to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself and also remind us that we have a lot more to offer each other than the evils of war and conflict.”
Here Be Dragons is available on DVD and Digital on Demand from 21 February 2024
