Hanno Hoefer Interview...

“ I wouldn’t change it for anything”.

Grabbing a coffee at his usual watering hole somewhere in the deep depths of the city, I soon realised whilst chatting and losing track of time, how enigmatic Hanno Hoefer really is. Romania knows him as front man of ‘The Nightlosers’ a band that concocts a combustible recipe of blues & country with traditional Romanian sound. Immense success also as a founder member of Mobra Films, with Christian Mungiu and Oleg Mutu won them the Palm d’Or and FIPRESCI award at Cannes in 2007, with the critically acclaimed film ‘4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days’.
I found myself at a unique vantage point to ask the less obvious, to delve into his past student life, musical beginnings as a performer and the start of his life behind the camera.

LC - You studied in Berlin?
HH – For awhile, yes
LC – What was it you studied?
HH – I studied Eastern European history and social anthropology,
LC – And you were in Berlin for how long?
HH – Let me see... for about 3 years.
LC – Why Berlin?
HH – Because I left Romania in ’88 and went to Germany as an immigrant actually. I have a German background and from Romania I went there. I didn’t feel good in western Germany. I studied a year in Bavaria and didn’t like it at all. Then I moved to Berlin because I visited Berlin and somehow I felt very at home. I still had my Romanian passport and I was able to travel to East Berlin whenever I wanted, without paying, so you know... I even lived in East Berlin, studied in West Berlin... for me having those 2 passports the German one and the Romanian one...
LC – There wasn’t so much of a cultural difference then?
HH – Yes and no. In West Berlin there was a cultural difference but in East Berlin where I knew a lot of people there wasn’t. I knew people there because lot’s of East Germans came to Romania during the summer to go to the Black Sea. And I made a lot of friends. Actually I knew lots of East Berliners and it was easier for me to see what was going on there and with their help.
LC – Why study those specific subjects?
HH – Well, I finished High School with the focus on history in Bucharest and then I went to Germany, thought, ‘what should I study’?’ Where could I have a good position’? I mean, not every University took you and the Institute for Eastern European History had one big condition, you had to know one of those languages, so, as I knew Romanian they took me immediately, so that was one of the reasons. And of course another reason was because it was interesting and basically it was very good there. Unfortunately I didn’t finish those studies, because I switched to film directing. But it was useful anyway...
LC – When you came back here to Romania you studied cinematography, to begin a career in filming? Had you made a conscious decision then for that type of career?
HH – No, not at all. It was much simpler than that. I had a girlfriend in Cluj, in Transylvania...
LC – Ahhh, so it was all about a woman...
HH – No... (smiling), well, more or less. No, I organised from Berlin, I managed to get a scholarship to study Eastern European history in Cluj for one year, so there I studied. Then some good friends of mine tried to get into the Film School in Bucharest and they told me about the exams... I got interested and then I said ‘I’m gonna try this too’, out of fun. And there were 3 exams in a period of, I don’t know, 10 days or something like that. They were eliminatory exams, so if you missed one, failed, you’re out. I took the first 2 and it got serious, I mean, I realised I had chances to be admitted. I think the reason why I got admitted into the school was because I didn’t want to...
LC – ... because you were relaxed? And you had nothing to lose?
HH – Exactly. That’s it. And that’s how I switched to film. I quit studying history and switched to film...
LC – So really by chance...
HH – More or less.
LC – You’ve done some acting too.
HH – Yeah, on the side.
LC – Have you a desire to act?
HH – No, I don’t have a desire. I don’t go to castings, only if I’m forced to do it, no, it was an accident! I worked in a theatre before ’89 in Romania, as an actor, for about 2 years, but that was it, then I took a break for about 10 years, but when I was in film school they started to give me small parts, some of them obviously went good and they called me from time to time, but it’s not my job and I’m not an actor, to be clear (smiles).
LC – When you were studying, were you involved with music?
HH – Yes. In Cluj I formed this band.
LC – The Nightlosers?
HH – No I had another small band, the 3 of us. Some guys in Cluj they were music producers and organised regular parties. They needed a jam session band and they took me from my band and my colleagues who were popular musicians in Cluj. We met one day at a club without knowing what to play and of course blues is the best... when you don’t know what to play you play blues! We didn’t even have a name and we played for about ½ year for free beer, out of fun and slowly, slowly. We stayed together. The name wasn’t our choice it was given to us by the audience, by some guys, I don’t know who it was! I didn’t even like it in the beginning...
LC – But the name stuck and you were destined to have it...
HH - Yeah, we tried to change it about 10 years ago.
LC – You have a very loyal and strong following.
HH – Actually yes. We built the following. I recognise the people when we go to a different city. We’ve been playing for 15 years. It’s time they got familiar with what we’re doing!
LC – When you look at new film projects, do they come to you, or do you get the creative flow going yourself, do you collaborate... how does it work?
HH – It’s kind of from outside. I don’t sit down and say ‘let’s write a script’, no, something has to happen. You never know where you go from there, it can be a discussion sitting at a table, can be from anything. I have to admit I’m not good at sitting down and writing out of fantasy, like some people do.
LC – Tell me about your film ‘The International Phone Call’ (Telefon In Stainatate).
HH – You know that film? You surprise me...
LC – The photography is quite exceptional and the little details in the first minute when nothing is spoken. I was taken aback by the wonderful detail you’d captured. Your observations on the everyday, streets, stray dogs... spot on and identifiable.
HH – That was a school film, it was made in school. I think we shot it in 3 days and to prepare another 2 or 3 days, maybe 2 weeks. We edited in one night. And we edited on film on an editing table, not a computer. At Film School we had an editing table from the 1940’s, really, really, and they were still working and we were editing with the film...
LC – That’s a creative process in itself...
HH – It’s a very creative process and I’m very sorry it disappeared because everything is now on software... I learned to keep everything in order, you know, because you were surrounded by hundreds of metres of film and if you lose your orientation ‘where did I put that metre of film’? It’s a disaster... I had to be very careful with it. Everything was done physically, by cutting the film...
LC – Do you think it’s better now?
HH – It’s easier now but definitely there’s something lost. It was complicated, it’s much easier now and you can focus more on the creative process, but on the other hand it helped me, I liked it. I get lost on a computer. I liked editing at that time.
LC – Did you use professional actors in the film?
HC – No and the main character wasn’t an actor.
LC – I think that’s what’s so appealing about it, because it’s so normal and natural. Are you going to make another film like that again?
HH – Yeah the one I’m going to do in July or August is more or less the same approach. It’ll need a lot more preparation because now I have to take care of everything.
LC – Where can we find out info on your Nightloser gigs?
HH – On our Myspace page.
LC – Are there plans for a new album?
HH – We definitely plan on this, in the summer. If everything goes well, we’ll start recording in April.
LC – Any videos?
HH – Yeah, we have to do some videos.
LC – Is it going to be a covers album or original?
HH – Maybe three or four original songs but mostly blues standards because that’s part of what we do.
We played in Toronto Canada in November (2008). One of the best compliments, I ever got was from a 60 year old carpenter. After the show he came over to us and said ‘I like the way you fuck around with those songs’... Yeah, that’s actually what we do!
LC – At different points of your life, you’ve had significant projects, but basically you’re a free man to work on things that you really want to do.
HH – yeah, I’ve been lucky. The financial part of course cannot be neglected, sometimes it was hard, sometimes it was good, at times a little insecure, but I wouldn’t change it for anything.

Since interviewing Hanno Hoefer, Mobra Films have now been confirmed as a contender for this year’s Cannes Film Festival with ‘Tales from the Golden Age’. All the very best with the film guys. Romania’s standing proud!

‘The Nightlosers’ gig listings, info, video’s and samples of music on the band can be found on www.myspace.com/nightlosers
For Mobra Films and info on ‘4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days’ -
http://www.mobrafilms.ro/
http://www.4months3weeksand2days.com/blog/index.php

Lu Cozma
www.myspace.com/cozmalu
http://www.expatromania.com/