What was the creative process behind After Us?
Sterkens: 'For After Us, the BNO gave me an enormous amount of creative freedom. I was able to contribute to shaping the programme from the outset and suggest works that I felt resonated with the theme of radioactive waste. In a conventional film production, music is only added during the editing process. With this project, it was exactly the other way around: the music came first, and the images grew out of it.'
How do you make a film about vast concepts such as time, legacy and caring for life?
Sterkens: 'By making sure the film never becomes too literal as a whole. By deliberately allowing it to hover between the abstract and the concrete, the viewer is invited to keep thinking — during the film and long afterwards. Whenever I make a film, I ask myself: How can I tell this story in the most universal and timeless way possible, so that people from any cultural background can understand its message? And for me, one thing always remains essential: showing the human perspective. People and their emotions.'
By deliberately allowing it to hover between the abstract and the concrete, the viewer is invited to keep thinking — during the film and long afterwards.
Which work in the programme presented the greatest challenge, and why?
Sterkens: 'I have to admit that I really struggled with Penderecki’s Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima. This music breathes pure horror, catastrophe and devastation. What makes it even more fascinating is that Penderecki did not originally write the piece about Hiroshima. It began as an abstract sonic experiment, initially titled simply after its duration: 8'37". It was only after hearing it performed in concert for the first time that he was overwhelmed by its emotional impact and dedicated it to the victims of Hiroshima. That is precisely what struck me: the horror was already present in the sound, even before a name or an event was attached to it. For more than eight minutes, the listener has to find a way through it all. But what images do you add for the viewer? How do you make a film about radioactive radiation, which is by nature an invisible phenomenon? And how far do you want to go, as an artist, in depicting its consequences? With the other pieces, the answers came more quickly. In Max Richter’s November, for instance, I immediately heard a sense of proof of the connection between generations.'
How does this subject resonate with you personally?
Sterkens: 'The birth of my daughter earlier this year has radically changed the way I look at the world. Since then, life on Earth has seemed so much more precious to me, but also far more fragile. By bringing a new generation into the world, I feel an even greater responsibility to help build a fertile future for my daughter. Passing on our knowledge of the world — and, in this particular case, our knowledge of radioactive waste — plays a crucial role in that. At a time as turbulent as ours, marked by fake news and obscurantism, we need to show that we take care with the ideas and information we pass on.'
What do you hope audiences will take away from the film?
Sterkens: 'My mission is accomplished when a film takes on a second life and continues to live on in the audience's minds, sparking further reflection. I hope viewers will go home feeling more connected to nature and to one another. Life on Earth, in all its beauty and its strange twists and turns, is always worth fighting for. So, after the performance, hold each other close. And take care of one another — and of the world around you.'
