I had the opportunity to speak with Zurich native Barbara Kulcsar about her uplifting film “Golden Years,” written by Swiss writer and filmmaker Petra Volpe. The film is about a newly retired couple, Alice (Esther Gemsch) and Peter (Stefan Kurt) who embarks on a cruise, but they find themselves drifting further apart. When things don’t go as planned, they learn to evolve their relationship in this affectionate comedy about self-discovery and developing new ways to spend one’s golden years. You can watch this film now on digital streaming platforms.

How did you come to this project? Can you talk about your collaboration with the writer Petra Volpe?

I came to this project through the production company, Zodiac Pictures. I already had done a film with them many years ago. So I received a phone call on a Thursday before Easter from the producer who told me that they had a project written by Petra Volpe, and they needed a director. Petra initially wanted to direct the film herself, but then there were several reasons that they left the project. One of those reasons being that she has an American project that was ongoing, and was ready to shoot soon. On the other hand it was still around these COVID times, and she was in New York. So it was very complicated for her to travel back and forth. So she decided to not do the film and the production company was sending the script to four directors, and one of them was me.

We had to have our conversation during Easter weekend because they had to have the new director named the Tuesday after the holiday because of the funding. I read the script and of course I loved it very much. During my initial conversation with Petra it was like a sales pitch, and I wasn’t sure if it went well or not. I still had some questions about the genre aspects to the film, like is it trying to be more of a comedy or a dramedy. So I spoke with Petra again, and we had a great conversation. After that I realized I was a good match to be the director on this film. We immediately started talking about the characters, and it was really nice to dive into that. From that moment on we had an intensive exchange about the film about the characters and the story. The project was quite far along when I came on board. The film script was one draft before the shooting draft, but still we had some major things that had to be discussed. Our collaboration was really close, and all done through zoom.

I feel during the pandemic I had such a good experience with zoom. I have friends I met through zoom that I still haven’t met in person yet.

The first time Petra and I met in-person was at the world premiere of the film. 

Can you talk about how you found Esther Gemsch as the role for Alice? And how was it working with her to develop that character.

As I said Petra wanted to direct the movie herself, and she had already done the first round of casting. Esther was among the actresses considered for Alice in the first round. I already had worked with Esther on a TV series, so when I read the script she immediately came to my mind for the role as Alice. Stefan Kurt, who plays Peter, was already confirmed for the role when I came on board, because he and Petra had worked together in the past. They told me with Alice there were several people that were in the discussion. I just knew by reading the script that this would be a great role for Esther.

Then when I spoke with Petra she said, ‘yes, yes, Esther is already on the list.’ She was on the list because it is not easy to find actresses in that age group that are not fully made up, and I didn’t want a fully made up actress. Esther is a natural beauty, but that wasn’t the only reason why she was right for the role. She is a great actress. I knew that from working together on the television series. Since we already had a positive experience working together, I knew it would work out really well.

I love the naturalness of her character! It’s so amazing to see her transformation by the end of the film. I really do feel like you can come of age at any age, so I really see this as a coming of age film. I was wondering how it was working with the cinematographer Carsten Meyer and editor Wolfgang Weigl in bringing this transformation to the screen.

When we were working on the film we had chosen five moments in the script where we knew that we wanted to play with variations. I knew that for these moments I wanted to have different scales of happiness or sadness to give us options in the editing room. For example, the moment after Alice decides to seduce Peter, and he locks himself in the bathroom. We wanted to explore variations of her emotion when she goes outside alone on the balcony looking over at the ocean.

That is a heart wrenching scene!

We shot variations with her sobbing, really sobbing, crying, crying. Then we had moments where she pretended that nothing happened, like, ‘I didn’t notice, maybe he is just having a stomach ache,’ or what ended up in the film with her having a really sad and contemplative look. I knew I had to find the balance between comedy and dramedy, and I needed several possibilities. So the DP was also involved in these discussions. I told him, “look, this is the moment I want to shoot different scales of feelings, so we need that time to be able to do that.” Now in this example it was easy because we couldn’t do a reverse shot, it was all on her. I needed my time, and he knew that, so he was a very good partner in crime. Also, Esther loved to explore. It was decided at the beginning of the shoot that there would be these scenes that we really wanted to explore, and the editor also knew that there were different takes to choose from to really show the best version of the story.

You’ve already done your festival run, and the film is out now. Could you talk about what you hoped people would get from the film, and maybe share some of the audience feedback.

Yes, I have been lucky to travel with the film. In Switzerland I was always with Esther for the screenings, and abroad, we were together in Palm Springs. It was really exciting to see that people acted quite similar wherever I went. But what was surprising for us was the positive feedback we received from young people, because originally the film seemed to be more geared to an elderly audience.

I do think it is so important to have this age group represented on the screen, because younger people can think, ‘oh there is more to my parents or grandparents then just their roles.’ 

Yes! And what was also very interesting was when I was with Esther and so many young people that were in their twenties asked her for her advice after the movie. And they were like, “oh my Mom is really suffering, Alice (Esther’s character name) what should I tell her?” And she was like, “I’m an actress, not a therapist,” [Laughing] “all I can tell you is that we all need to talk, talk, talk. We shouldn’t stop talking to each other, and only fantasize what the other person wants and needs. Many people told us even if they are not in retirement stage in life, there are other life decisions that need to be discussed, like if they are ready to have children or not, or whether one wants to study in another city or country. What was also explored through this film was how much do I have the freedom to choose my own direction, and how deciding on things together in a relationship helps us love each other better.

I love that ending and it shows that you are never finished, and you can choose different routes in your life at any point. This film was very uplifting for me.