The best I've ever seen

Interview with Michal A. Valasek, executive producer.

Q: This movie is different from the other production of Lupus Pictures. Why?

MAV: We are always trying to be the inovators. We were the first movie company producing films with spanking themes, which started to use fully professional equipment. Few years later, we released the biggest spanking project ever seen, The Crime In St. Thomas' School, which quickly became a legend. This time it's another milestone: The Orphan is another great improvement in quality of our work.

Q: What do you like most about The Orphan?

MAV: I think that this movie contains the best whipping scene in movie ever seen. I won't disguise that I am very interested in spanking and whipping -- that's why I work for this company. But it's really hard to shoot a really good whipping.

Q: Why?

MAV: Because you must catch the atmosphere. It's easy to show girl being spanked - simply get digital camera and spank the girl. It's the way that most of other companies are going.

But the really interesting part begins when you are able to show the fear. The pain of whipped girl, the sweat on naked body of the chastened - and the punisher, too. I was present in the room while the whipping was executed. I was standing behind the monitors. Only after the director shouted "Stop!" I noticed that I am bleeding, I bited trough my own hand. There were all the lights, cameras, microphones, lots of people, but the experience was so strong! After I saw the preliminary cut of this scene, I am sure that the spectators will bite themselves too.

Q: How did you prepare the scene?

MAV: Long and precisely. It was the only moment of the shooting I was really scared, when Pavel Stastny, the author of the screenplay and also the performer of the farmer, tested the whip on boxing bag. "Hey, you will kill the girl!" I shouted and I was really, really afraid. But Pavel learned to control the whip very well and after I saw that the test stunt girl survived the whipping I calmed down.

Q: The symbol of this movie is the lantern. Why?

Warm light of the lantern attracts the orphan girl to the farmhouse. She is going towards the light, light meaning people. But when she refuses to pay the price for salvation of her life, the same lantern is used while she is whipped and the warm light changes to burning fire of lashes of the whip. The light of the lantern accompanies our heroine trought the story, from fear trough hope, disappointment to final reprobation.

Q: And what about the volwes?

MAV: I like the wolves, even the name of our company is Lupus Pictures - and "lupus" is the latin word for a wolf. Animals acting in this movie are not real wolves, they are the Czechoslovakian Wolfdogs, and were provided by our friends. Originally they were bred by the Czechoslovakian army by interbreeding the wolves with german shepperds. Nowadays, the wolfdogs are proud and beautiful animals. Surely, there were some problems, because we couldn't find anyone to preciously translate the screenplay to the wolvish language, so the animals were unable to read it.

Q: Where you shooted? The farmhouse is looking very real.

MAV: The farmhouse is real. For shooting we rented old manor house in north Bohemia, being now part of a museum. The building is a few centuries old and so is the furniture and most of the decorations. It was really a strange feeling, when I was sitting there, the 21th century notebook computer laying on the 18th century wooden desk.

Q: And the obvious question to the end: Any funny stories from the stage?

Zbynek surely told you about our brave chicken. My story is not so funny, but it will tell you a lot about people making these movies. Lots of scenes are shoot using the Staedycam. It's a kind of harness, carried by the Staedycam operator, where the camera is gyroscopically attached. It's very heavy and very expensive. We were shooting in the highlands, in the middle of the winter. Actress playing the Orphan was running away, trough the footbridge over the cold brook. The footbridge consisted of two planks, very frosty and slippy. You may see how the camera operator faltered for ten of second and then bravely passed the bridge with the awful gyroscopic arm bound to his body. The take was the best and you will probably see it in the movie.