Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 

American director Shana Feste is at KVIFF this year to present the international premiere of her debut feature The Greatest, an emotional drama starring Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon as parents trying to come to terms with the sudden death of their eldest son.

Was The Greatest inspired by anything in your own life?
Before I was born, my father lost a son, who was three years old when he died. I wasn’t born at the time so I don’t know what it’s like to lose a sibling, but I know what it’s like to grow up with a grieving parent. That was definitely something that I wanted to write about, because it changed who he became as my father and it’s something that I lived with while I was growing up. And while I was writing the story, I was working as a nanny. So I was taking care of this little beautiful baby and whenever she was taking a nap I would get out my journal and start writing. So it was the combination of taking care of this beautiful child and thinking about life and death, while also being inspired by my own personal experience of grief.

It reminded me a lot of Ordinary People and Terms of Endearment…
“Well, I’ve always been inspired by the films of the early 1980s, the character-driven dramas. That’s definitely what I wanted to do. I wanted to write a drama and I wanted to write about relationships. And then, of course, Terms of Endearment and Ordinary People are my absolute favorite films. I knew as a first-time director that I would have to write roles that actors would want to play. So I wanted to try and write the best roles possible. And when you write about grief you have characters whose emotions change daily and they’re just so unpredictable. For a writer, grieving is a gigantic well to mine from. I think it’s beautiful what people go through when they are grieving simply because it’s so honest and raw. It’s so sad, but then you have these moments of levity and beauty. It was just an inspiring subject to write about.

Was it not a bit daunting directing your first film with some top-notch talent like Pierce Brosnan, Susan Sarandon and cinematographer John Bailey (who actually shot Ordinary People)?
Of course, I was extremely intimidated. I’ll be totally honest; I was so scared the night before we started shooting, because literally the night before I left to shoot the movie in New York I was working as a nanny. So I said goodbye, got my paycheck, and went off to make this movie. It’s still hard for me to even call myself a director. I was incredibly scared the first day I walked onto set. I think only my husband knew how scared I was. But getting a film made you have to be a little bit like a con artist. I don’t know anybody who can really say they know how to make the perfect film.

You will find the complete interview by Cóilín O’Connor in today´s edition of the Festival Daily.