Hélène’s talents are on striking display in Murina, a new coming-of-age film directed by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic. Murina tells the story of a Croatian teen (played by newcomer Gracija Filipović) navigating a treacherous passage to adulthood in an intensely patriarchal milieu. With intimate close-ups, breathtaking underwater sequences, and beautiful shots of the island where the film is set, Hélène’s images give arresting form to the protagonist’s awakening to her own desires. The cinematographer joined us from her home in Paris to talk about how she crafted the film’s visual language, the care required to capture women as both subjects and objects of the gaze, and the technical challenges and pleasures of shooting underwater.
