Frankie writer/director Ira Sachs on working with Isabelle Huppert and being out of his comfort zone

Writer/director Ira Sachs takes his cinematic inspiration from a number of sources. Cassavetes, Loach and Fassbinder all appear at the top of his list and he’s always felt especially at home with European cinema but, for his latest film, Frankie, he turned to Indian master storyteller, Satyajit Ray, and Kanchenjungha, a movie of his from 1962 about a family brought together at a critical point.

As Sachs explains to The People’s Movies’ Freda Cooper, he wrote the script with Isabelle Huppert in mind. She had seen some of his films, approached him about working together and even though he thought that initial contact was fake, he started looking for a project that would allow both of them to be out of place in a certain way. The result was Frankie, which follows one significant day in the life of a family brought together in Portugal as the Frankie of the title faces up to the future and makes some important decisions.

With Sintra in Portugal as its backdrop, it’s Sach’s first film both set and shot outside of America. Yet, although he was outside of his comfort zone, he felt at ease working with an entirely Portuguese crew and with the European style of cinema they were all making together. He’s emphatic, however, that the film isn’t about Portugal, even though it’s set there: it’s about the collection of relationships within the family, all of which have been formed elsewhere.