Toronto Film Festival Dailies

  THE ODD-JOB MEN

TIFF 2021

With Director: Neus Ballús

 Photo by By Guillem Medina - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

INTERVIEW by Emmanuel Itier

Q: So, where did this idea about this unique movie come from?

Neus: The inspiration for this film comes from my step-father who is a plumber. He always told me about his strange stories that happened with some of his customers. I found them very weird and very revealing about human relationship. He has access to how we live our lives. It was interesting making a film about working class. I come from the documentary school of filmmaking but I wanted to try to do something different, something real and engaging but also with lost of humor. I had no idea about succeeding but I guess I did since my film is at TIFF now.

Q: Did you have some odd jobs in your life?

Neus: For sure, like everyone else. I’m opened to try to do anything. I’m intrigued by people who try things beyond their studies, their school training. It’s good to try to do new things in your life even if you’re bad at them first.

Q: What was the biggest challenge making this film?

Neus: The first challenge is to accept that a film is, at some point, out of your control. Even so you are the filmmaker you have to go with the flow of things and see what happens when you make a film. It’s a great lesson of humility to direct a movie because you never know for sure what will become of your film and how good, or not, it will be. At the end the movie belongs to the audience. The other challenge is about editing. I had more than 70 hours of footage to put together into a comprehensive picture. Not a simple task at all. It was hard to find a balance in term of the tone as well, between being funny and being serious.

Q: What are the themes explored with this film?

Neus: I wanted to talk about ordinary people and their ordinary lives. By doing that I found out that no life is ordinary, no life is normal. Everything that happens to us is super unique et super interesting. But sometime we don’t pay attention to it, to our lives, it passes us by and it’s gone. So you have to better pay attention to your life and not take it for granted. Films don’t have, always, to be built around super stories with super-heroes and their super powers. Every situation, every life can be dramatic and unique. Everybody’s life is amazing. I want to invite the audience of my film to experience their own life in a different way. You are the main character, the principal Hero of your life.

Q: What are your expectations with TIFF?

Neus: No expectation! I did everything I could with this movie and I just hope my film will be well received in Toronto. I’m just grateful it was selected and it’s giving my film to be seen by many people. I hope they love it.

Q: What’s coming next for you?

Neus: I’m thinking about new ideas. For sure I have a feature in mind. Even so I love Documentaries and I’m sure I will find another great subject matter soon. Life gives me great ideas. I just need to pay attention!