- Title: FILM-BRITAIN/TRASH JUNKET Director Stephen Daldry talks "Trash"
- Date: 16th January 2015
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JANUARY 16, 2015) (REUTERS) SOUNDBITE (English) DIRECTOR STEPHEN DALDRY, SAYING: "I gave them options all the time - 'do you even want to get away with it?' and of course the kids... 'or do you think you should all die?' and they went, 'no no, we want to get away with it, of course we want to get away with it.' So I hope the film reflects their own particular sense of fun, adventure, and again most importantly perhaps their sense of justice and faith and belief in the future of their country."
- Embargoed: 31st January 2015 12:00
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- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVAEAHON7MZZNXYMQ996S0P4D89I
- Story Text: Oscar-nominated British director Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot) heaped praise on the trio of young Brazilian actors who star in his latest favela adventure drama, "Trash".
The Brazilian-British film, which is set in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, tells the story of three teenagers who find a wallet while foraging through a dumpsite.
They soon learn that it is sought after by a corrupt police officer and risk their lives to solve the mystery surrounding it.
Rickson Tevez, Eduardo Luis and Gabriel Weinstein, who play the protagonists Rafael, Gardo and Rato, had no previous acting experience and speak Portuguese.
"They've never really - they've certainly done no acting before, I don't think they've been to a movie house either, so the journey really was, once we had found and located the kids that we wanted to work with, which took many months, it's trying to make the story make entire sense to them," said Daldry.
The film also stars Martin Sheen, who plays an American missionary priest, and Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), who plays an aid worker.
Daldry told Reuters that he encouraged his cast to improvise, and that he even gave the young actors a chance to influence what might happen in the end of the film.
"I gave them options all the time - 'do you even want to get away with it?' and of course the kids... 'or do you think you should all die?' and they went, 'no no, we want to get away with it, of course we want to get away with it.'," he said.
"Trash", based on the novel by Andy Mulligan, is a joint venture between UK film-makers and the Brazilian cinema industry. It was filmed on location in Rio de Janeiro slums, as well as a fake landfill site made from harmless materials. In order to make the dumpsite scenes as convincing as possible, Daldry and his team visited the Jardim Gramanco, one of the world's largest landfill sites, to talk to the site's trash pickers and learn how they worked.
"It (Jardim Gramacho dump site) was a pretty dangerous horrible place, lots of people did work there and live there, to recycle and make money as best they could, but the level of medical waste and chemical waste was just so extreme that we felt we would have to build our own dump, using the real people from Gramacho, helping us do this, but actually so it wasn't covered in stuff that would actually kill not just the kids but the crew at the same time," he said.
The film premiered at the Rio Film Festival in October 2014 and has been nominated for a BAFTA.
It will be released in the UK on January 30. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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