Film delegation: Fly away home
Interview with Zita and Lino Gaier, child actors.
You are coming with your family to be part of the Austrian Films delegations. We really do appreciate that and can´t wait to meet you all here in Zlín. You particularly will present your film Fly Away Home that is based upon a Christin Nöstlinger´s biography. Have you meet this lady in person? Do you know her books?
ZITA: thank you so very much for inviting us, it's special for me and I am glad... we all are glad!... to be part of the zlin festival. it's wonderful! and I am proud to present the film "fly away home", which is indeed based on christine nöstlingers biography. unfortunately I have never had the chance to meet her. but I was told she quite liked the film and was pleased with mirjam's interpretation of this bit of her personal story. she is a great author and of course I read some of her other books as well. i like the way she is writing, very much the children's view and very much viennese.
It is quite interesting casting siblings. How did you get the roles? What does it look like when sister and brother shoot one film? Was there any scene difficult for you to play or any funny scenes (in spite of a serious topic).
LINO: after my casting mirjam asked me, if there maybe was a sister (because she knew we were quite a lot of kids!) at the age of about 9 years... and so I told her of zita. mirjam asked: "how does she look like?" - "she has curly hair, blond. and dark eyes. she is kind of wild and can really get on your nerves" I said - "great, when can we meet her?" was miriam's reaction... and so the things got going.
ZITA: this is the part he enjoys telling most "the annoying sister"... ha! but it's true. of course I would put it otherwise, describe me more politely. more like: "she is full of energy" (laughs). but - - - thank you, brother, I probably owe it to your choice of words that mirjam wanted to get to know me...
LINO: ... and we both could be part of this wonderful project! for both of us it was an incredible experience, exciting, colourful, also strenuous. especially the night scenes. it was such an intensive time with many funny moments and of course it helped to have a sister on the set among all the people there - even if she is sometimes annoying (laughs and gets a cuddle), we got to know each other in a completely new way, that was also exciting.
ZITA: yes, we had many very funny scenes in spite of the serious topic. i think we all liked most the scene with this glorious dinner! the food was so nice, that everyone (although the scene was shot directly after our lunch) and even lino (although he is not very much fond of dumplings!) enjoyed it.
Do you learn about the WWII at school? Was the shooting kind of education for both of you?
LINO: of course it was an education and a very vivid one! at that time we both hadn't learned anything about it in school! and then it's not the second world war itself, but those first days shortly after the end of it, about which one hears so little.
You both like film and cinema. What kinds of films do you like? Any of them in particular?
ZITA: we love movies, we often watch them together. of course the boys don't always find the movies we girls watch so exciting...
LINO: thats not true! I love these horse films: slow-motion gallop scenes on the beach are great!!! (laughs)
ZITA: ... but what we can almost always agree on are old movies, comedies with hans moser or peter alexander. and our top favorit one: the court jester with danny kaye.
You are a real film family. Did your brother Enzo bring you to acting?
LINO: no, we are not a "film family", we are only very lucky to sometimes be in a film. enzo has brought us to acting in the sense that after his first one (the horse on the balcony) we were all amazed. hoping that one day a similar project might pop up again.
Have you ever been to the Czech Republic?
ZITA: unfortunately no, but now we are here and there can't be a better occasion than zlin! we are so happy to be here!!!