A hopeless baker’s attempt at taking his own life is interrupted by a persistent child in need of a birthday cake.
Director Biography – Max Mir
Max Mir began his filmmaking journey at the age of 8, making stop motion videos with his toys. He later started directing his own shorts, and even jumped into theatre for a while. After obtaining his BA degree at the Met Film School, Mir managed to present a short film during the Cannes Film Festival (out of competition), and has produced shorts that have been screened at Pinewood Studios London and Raleigh Studios, Los Angeles. Having recently worked at Netflix’s “Cathedral of the Sea”, Mir now has all his attention on distributing “Bittersweet”, his latest film.
Bittersweet was an idea I had stuck in my head for the longest time. It had taken many different shapes, and those never quite worked out, so it was just a matter of time until we found the best place to put the idea into action.
I’m a firm believer in second chances, but I’ve always wondered if, perhaps, some people don’t need them? How far can a hopeless soul be pushed, and is there hope for everyone? Recently I’ve been thinking that, perhaps, “Bittersweet” was my way of obtaining a sort of answer to this question.
The hardest thing about directing this film was coming up with a way of balancing the positives and negatives of the story. Making a dramedy was by far the best option, since I was able to highlight the most surreal and dramatic aspects of this tale. But what mattered the most to me was depicting the contrast between our characters in order to reflect their unusual relationship. An unstable adult being controlled by an innocent child? Definitely something that catches my eye.
The question is, will their relationship be beneficial, or insignifcant?
During the film we empathize with Benedict, and Johnas does all he can to brighten him up, but destiny is tricky, and we might never know what happens to Benedict. Life is a joke, isn’t it? And I say that with a smile on my face.
I’m entirely grateful to Lorenzo [the screenwriter], Pol [the co-director], and Steve Watts for sensibly listening to my story and helping me bring it to screen in a way that isn’t neither completely sad or happy. That’s what, life, is to me.
Max Mir began his filmmaking journey at the age of 8, making stop motion videos with his toys. He later started directing his own shorts, and even jumped into theatre for a while. After obtaining his BA degree at the Met Film School, Mir managed to present a short film during the Cannes Film Festival (out of competition), and has produced shorts that have been screened at Pinewood Studios London and Raleigh Studios, Los Angeles. Having recently worked at Netflix’s “Cathedral of the Sea”, Mir now has all his attention on distributing “Bittersweet”, his latest film.
