_{Magma by Luca Meisters}

In the short film Magma, selected for Berlinale Kplus, Esra is gentle and introverted and attending a new school. Following her father’s debilitating motorbike accident, she and her family have had to move to another area and a house that accommodates his needs. But Esra also has a fiery temperament which threatens to come to the surface as she attempts to deal with the new circumstances of her life. One day she tells a lie, telling her potential new best friend Sam that her father was killed in the accident. But this is a lie that must be maintained, which keeps her pain and anger boiling beneath the surface, threatening to explode…

Directed by Luca Meisters and written by Nena van Driel, who also wrote the 2023 Berlin Generation pick Kiddo**, Magma is much informed by the creatives’ own adolescent experiences and personalities.

“We wanted to tell a story about a fiery explosive girl and what lies behind this kind of behavior,” says Meisters. “Nena grew up with a chronically ill parent with all the responsibilities and the fear that that entailed. And me, as a kid at a certain period when I went into a new class and didn't feel at ease, I started telling lots of lies. So Nena and I started to talk about these things and about the subconscious worlds of children, and why they do certain things that they're not really aware of, and how that reflects their surroundings and the world around them. This subconscious world was something we wanted to explore. And especially lying is something really interesting.”

The film’s title is therefore poignant in describing both the director and screenwriter, as well as their subject. “I guess Nena was more of an explosive kid, who had more eruptions. Me, I was way more like building up this tension and it was brewing inside. We both had this inner volcano inside us in different ways, and it was really interesting to combine these two inner worlds. In Esra you can see both Nena and me.”

Meisters graduated as a director from the Maastricht Institute of Performative Arts in 2019. She had originally gone there to study theatre but by her second year had begun to realise that film was her favoured vehicle for storytelling. So she fervently set out to pursue that goal, eventually graduating with the short film When Birds Fly Low which had its international premiere at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen 2020 before being selected for Palm Springs Short Fest and Cinekid. Meisters’ 2021 short film Nova* had its premiere at BUFF Malmö and was nominated for Best Short Film.

She describes her authorial voice as very subtle, whereby much is told via small gestures and emotional responses rather than seismic plot shifts. “I'm interested in creating emotional landscapes,” Meisters explains. “I like to explore these micro expressions in the eyes and in the face. My stories are intimate and spherical studies of young people in moments of transition. Visually they seem realistic, but I also want to elevate them from daily life through conscious choices made from a specific colour palette, or choices of music and sound design.”

Meisters is weighing up her options as to what do next, whether it be a medium-length or feature film, and is in discussions with leading Dutch producer IJswater Films on which path to take. Yes, she retains a love for theatre, but what is for sure is that Meisters has successfully found her métier in film. “Cinema is the medium for me,” she signs off.

Magma is produced by IJswater Films. Festival distribution is handled by Kapitein Kort. The film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund.
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*Film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund
**Film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund and Film Production Incentive