A group of artists are drawn into an unexplained nightmare in Showpiece. Director Mathew Ouzounis takes us behind the scenes on his bizarre experimental short.
Showpiece stars Anton Mikhalev, Tessa Dang, Mahmoud Nouri, Adeela Mahmoud and Michael Lake as artists drawn to a wintery forest in search of inspiration, only to become trapped by an unseen force.
Drawing on the work of Andrei Tarkovsky, Elem Klimov and Robert Eggers, the multilingual film (delivered in a mix of English, Russian, Vietnamese, Farsi and Creole) delves into the dark side of the quest to create meaningful art.
Writer-director Mathew Ouzounis describes the project as “a metaphor for the obstacles that filmmakers are all going through” and says he hopes it can challenge the thought process of audiences.
“I’ve always been fascinated with why some artists are able to get there art out there, but others aren’t. It’s hard not to compare yourself to other people, when you’re trying to create art,” Ouzounis says. “When you look at other filmmakers and ask, ‘Why are that person’s films more successful than mine?’, but then you realize that other people have those inner struggles as well.”
Ouzounis says he was moved to introduce Showpiece’s multilingual (and multicultural) aspect by the diversity of people he has encountered working in the film industry in and around Toronto. As a result, he says, “the project provided me with the unique privilege of working with a cast and crew from around the world.”
“Every character speaks a different language, and I really wanted it to be authentic, so I went out of my way to find people that had come to Canada in the past three to five years,” he says, noting that he worked independently with each actor to develop their own dialogue.
“There were a lot of rehearsals, but by the time we were shooting, there wasn’t too much direction. At that point, I trusted them and I knew they understood the characters,” he adds.
“The project provided me with the unique privilege of working with a cast and crew from around the world.”
The Soviet-era look of the film also received a big boost from Panavision, which provided Ouzounis and his cinematographer (and cousin) Andrew Ouzounis with access to a large stash of lenses.
“They liked our previous shorts, so they came to us and said, ‘You can have a weekend to use half-a-million-dollars’ worth of gear.’ We’d never even shot on more than $10,000 worth of gear before,” the director recalls. “They’re also big fans of Russian cinema, so they understood the look we were going for and they allowed us to choose anything we wanted. It was very overwhelming. They really are the coolest people to work with.”
Principle photography took place in a wooded area in Vaughan (just north of Toronto) over one weekend in March 2023 following three months of pre-production. As Ouzounis explains, the elements weighed heavily on the project.
“Every time we went to the location, it looked different, so it was a scary challenge. We had no idea what it was going to look like on the day of the shoot,” he says. “When we were planning, we wanted it to be snowy, but we didn’t want to shoot in January or February when it was minus-30, so we aimed for March and hoped for snow in advance.”
“Every time we went to the location, it looked different, so it was a scary challenge. We had no idea what it was going to look like on the day of the shoot.”
Nevertheless, despite limited daylight hours and changing weather conditions, Ouzounis says the cast and crew (which total more than 30 people) came together to ensure they were able to get all the coverage they needed in the short time available.
“Pre-production is everything in filmmaking. If it wasn’t for our amazing team and planning for three months, we wouldn’t have been on the same page, and we never would’ve been able to shoot over a weekend,” he Ouzounis says. “I’d worked with about 50% of our team on others films, so we understood each other, but even with the new people, it was just so smooth. Because of all the pre-planning, we knew exactly what we needed.”
Showpiece is set to hit the festival circuit in the coming weeks. Looking ahead, Ouzounis says the project is something his team is both confident about and proud to share with audiences.
“People who have previewed it said it was scarier and more psychologically unnerving than I’d expected, which was interesting,” he says. “But, I want everyone to have their own opinions. I want to hear what they get from watching it themselves, so I’ve tried not to say too much to push it in a certain way.”
Connect with Mathew Ouzounis and Pandemic Productions on Instagram here (@pandemic_productions).
