In Amalia Ulman’s surrealist satire, Magic Farm, a group of self-absorbed independent music journalists fly down to Argentina on a whim to uncover the latest music craze. When they can’t find their contact, they decide to fabricate their story, oblivious to the small town’s real problems.
I sat down with Magic Farm filmmaker and star Amalia Ulman, along with cast members Chloë Sevigny, Alex Wolff and Joe Apollonio to talk about what drew them to the project and how they see their characters.
Magic Farm is now playing in New York. It will be in DC and Chicago on May 2 and Los Angeles on May 9 before opening wide on May 16 via MUBI.
Amalia, you came into “Magic Farm” off of your critically beloved first feature “El Planeta”. How did that inform the story that you wanted to tell next?
Amalia Ulman: My projects never really occur to me in a conscious way. They’re always brewing in the back of my brain for a while, and then they crystallize, and I see them very clearly in a visual way. And once that happens, that’s when I do them.
For El Planeta, it was very clear to me the way it was gonna get made, the pacing of it. Obviously, the humor is very similar to Magic Farm. That’s something that hasn’t changed. But I was shooting in a place that is very different from rural Argentina. It’s the north of Spain. It’s very cloudy. It’s very rainy. It’s gray, black, and white was a perfect way to do it. Also, that was my first film coming from the art world. I wasn’t coming from a clean state. I was coming from the background of an artist, which already made a lot of people very suspicious of my work as a filmmaker.
With Magic Farm, it’s a totally different story, and I like subverting people’s expectations. So if anybody thinks that my second feature will also be a black and white film set in Europe, they would be wrong. But again, it was not like a conscious choice. It’s just that’s what felt right at that moment because I’ve been learning about the glyphosates for a very long time, and wanted to do something about it. The way it crystallized in my mind was this combination of the visual environment, like the green against the blue skies, plus the influence of skateboarding and high-saturation videos. So all of that started taking form in my brain that way.
Who was the first character that came to you in the script?
AU: The first thing I saw was my grandma riding her motorcycle to church. I think it was about combining that with the debilitating politeness of the partly indigenous and lower working classes of Argentina —who have always been in the position of serving others — with the obnoxiousness of the American crew. I always thought, what would happen if I combined the two? What would happen if my New York friends met my Argentinian family?
For the cast, what drew you to this project?
Joe Apollonio: I mean, for me, it was kind of a no-brainer. Amalia had asked me very early on, when she was just kind of conceptualizing the project, if I wanted to be a part of it. At the time, I’d only had like a small handful of guest star roles on TV. So you know, in my head, I’m trying to work. I didn’t know what the end result would be, but all of it exceeded my expectations.
Alex Wolff: Me too. It really, really exceeded my expectations. Honestly, it was really Amalia and the script. Every step of the way, this movie has been more than I’ve wanted it to be. And I can’t say that about half of the things that I’m part of. I think that it appeals directly to my taste and my sensibility, and everyone that I love and respect has sort of understood what this movie is. Why it makes you laugh out loud is not because it’s a comedy, but it’s because it’s a satire. To me, it is just a dying breed because everything in our country has become so ridiculous that maybe we’ve become immune to it. But I love this movie because I think it’s a very angry movie, but also has a lot of love for the characters in it. Amalia has this amazing dual perspective of things. She sees what’s ridiculous about Americans. She sees what’s ridiculous about this culture that we’re going to and the movie sort of points out the ridiculousness of human beings in general, while also not indicting them in a way that’s dismissive or indicting them in a way that’s simplistic and cold. There’s something very warm and loving about it.
It’s interesting, Amalia talking about being an artist and coming in, and maybe people thinking that there’s going to be something like inherently pretentious or self-serious about her, and it couldn’t be more of the opposite. The movie, in my opinion, is aggressively non-pretentious. It’s like aggressively, rebelliously, not in vogue with what’s cool right now. And I’m just like in love with it and in love with the work that Amalia did and Chloe did, and Joe did. And it’s like those old-fashioned satires that I’ve always loved. I’m just really proud of this movie.
AU: That’s a very good way of describing me because I am very angry, but I also have a lot of empathy for some reason! But I’m also very angry.
JA: You have a sweet side, though.
AW: Amalia has many chances to indict the characters in a cold, calculated way. She has many chances, and instead chooses the more complex route of moving with the characters and their meandering sensibility, and moves with them, and lets the movie sort of like become like the characters. And I always love it when a movie reflects the characters in it. Taxi Driver is a great example. The movie starts to become more strange and twitchy and and complex as he starts to devolve into what he is. [Magic Farm] does the same thing, where it starts as this pithy, funny comedy and then becomes something a lot more strange and deep, and rewarding and meandering, and almost Altman-like towards the end. And I’m proud to be part of a movie that does that bold, maybe dividing decision.
Chloë, what enticed you to the project?
Chloë Sevigny: Initially, I met Amalia. I interviewed her for Filmmaker Magazine. After watching her first film, I was really struck by it. I just thought that she had a great voice. Knowing that she came out of the art world (we have a lot of mutual friends) and knowing a little bit about her work, I was just curious how she would evolve as a filmmaker. I thought she showed a lot of promise.
Like Joe, I just want to work. I’m a working actress, and I’m offered a lot of indie or smaller kind of projects, and some of them rise above the rest. Usually, it’s a combination of things. But first and foremost, it’s the writer/director. Just seeing El Planeta, I was really blown away by it and I was really impressed by all the different artisans that she pulled for that. From the costume designers to the music to the other actors, you could tell she had a taste level that was higher than a lot of people. I don’t want to dismiss other people! But it was elevated, and she was attracted to people who were pushing boundaries and wanting to do new things in different art forms, and that was very attractive to me. I think that showed a level of intelligence and just a way of looking at things that you know is fresh and new. Filmmaking can become very lazy and and I wanted to work with just wanted to work with her because I was interested in her ideas and how she was telling stories.
Amalia, I want to talk a little bit about the nuances that Alex was kind of alluding to. A documentary crew comes to this small Argentinian town, and while they are fumbling to shoot, we hear about all of these environmental horrors happening in this area and how the devastation is affecting its residents. Your character is interesting because she understands Spanish, but none of the translations of the harm happening in the area are being translated. Do you think it computed for her? Or has she tuned it out?
AU: I’ve met so many people like Elena in the past. She’s totally burned out. She’s one of the crew members, along with Justin (Apollonio’s character), that are poor and are not having great lives back in the U.S. She probably doesn’t have proper health insurance and gets paid very little. I think you can tell by the way she’s dressed that she’s somebody who doesn’t want to be looked at or just wants to be behind the scenes. She’s just getting paid to do her job, and I don’t think she feels she’s in a position to change that. But I think that comes from a place of like frustration. She’s a depressed person and not happy with her life. She’s pregnant by a married man. Her life is not great. She seems to be somebody who has no power, like no life force to fight against it.
Which I think is true for a lot of people who work for these kinds of places as well, or any kind of job. I think the question is often like, “Oh, why didn’t anybody stand up for blah blah blah?” Because half of the people are just tired. And they’re doing their job. And they’re just thinking about the next paycheck and how they’re gonna pay rent. So I think I wanted to be realistic about that and not be super judgmental. Anybody who works for the sort of media and goes to a 3rd World country and is focusing on something like fashion or music, they’re obviously not paying attention to a lot of other stuff that’s going on there, right? So that sort of comes with the job of doing that. When Elena says, “I don’t want to exploit somebody because they’re weird.” Jeff tells her, “Well, you chose the wrong job.”
Joe your relationship with the casita receptionist played by Guillermo Jacubowicz was one of my favorite parts of the film. How did you guys develop that chemistry?
JA: He’s such a wonderful guy in real life. Upon meeting him, we had done a little rehearsal on Zoom with Amalia shortly before I got to Argentina, and I could just tell that he was such a gregarious, kind person. I was attracted to him enough in his personality that I was able to sort of steer that into a romantic chemistry onscreen. The casting of him really did it justice to just to how touching and likable that dynamic is. It is sort of like an opposites attract type of situation. It really is left of center out of what you would consider like a heteronormative relationship, even like a typical queer relationship to be.
AU: Joe and I were both involved in the casting, and we both find Guillermo very attractive.
JA: Unconventionally sexy!
AU: I find him very charming and attractive! Like I can see that happening, you know. I think I believe it. I am not the cinematographer, but I am behind the camera as a director and if I believe it, it’ll be believable on screen. For me, I found Guillermo very attractive, and I could see it totally happening between Joe and Guillermo, and I think because I can see it through the lens that reflects onto it the same way, I knew Alex [Wolff] was a good fit for Camilla (del Campo).
Chloe, “Magic Farm” was at Sundance this year, as was your other project, “Atropia”. Though both are very different films, they explore some of the same themes in terms of American culture abroad. Talk to me about going from that project to this one, I forget which one you filmed first.
CS: I forget, too. I only shot one day on Atropia. But Haley Benton Gates, the director, is an old friend of mine. She was in a short film that I directed called White Echo that went to Cannes. She said, “I have this small part. And you know I’d seen the short.” It was another case of really believing in a person as a filmmaker, and wanting to be a part of their world, and if I could help get the movie funded, bring it to life some way, like I’m so like eager to do that for voices that I believe in. I hate the word voices, but I don’t know what else to use.
But I didn’t really see the correlation until you just mentioned it, which is very true. But yeah, it’s exciting for me. I love both these movies. I think Atropia is incredible, and I was really impressed when I went to a screening, because I missed the premiere. I was blown away by it. So yeah, I hope it finds some great distribution and people see both of the movies.
Lastly, Alex, you play a hipster fuckboy, who reminds me of, like every boy I ever shared a college class with. Did you take any inspiration from anywhere or anyone?
AW: You know. I think there’s a little bit of Jeff and all of us. Fortunately or unfortunately, and all I had to do was realize that. And then the second, you realize that things just keep on flooding. When you read Jeff, you go, “Oh no, this guy!” But then you’re like, “Well, I guess I’ve done something kind of like that.” I think if every man my age really drills down into themselves and things they’ve done, there’s a little bit of Jeff in all of us. All I had to do was let that free, and try not to be judgmental of it. If I winked too hard, then it doesn’t work, and if I pulled any punches and tried to give you a scene where he talks about how he’s taking care of his ailing mother or some bullshit, that would be fake, too. So instead, I just tried to deliver it, really, honestly. A lot of the things that I said I didn’t realize were funny until I saw the screening. I had spent almost 2 years playing Leonard Cohen. He’s hilarious in his own way, but I think I’d gotten to a point where I was maybe taking myself just way too seriously. When I got the script, I thought it could be some kind of self-immolation, just a chance to make fun of myself in a real way. I didn’t love it that when my mom saw it at Sundance, she was like, “Oh, you do that!” I was like “Mom. No, don’t say that!”
AU: The beauty of that character, I think, is that everyone gets triggered and like remembers something they’ve been through by somebody that is Jeff. So I think it’s a very relatable character.
CS: I just posted that movie trailer where I say to you, “You’re not a pony.” All my friends are going insane for that scene.
You can check out our review of Magic Farm here.
