Peter Krobath: You happened to read Gabriel Loidolt’s novel Hurensohn (The Whore’s Son) and knew straightaway that it was the material for a film...

Michael Sturminger: I think Hurensohn’s really wonderful material, because the book’s written in wholly unsentimental, extremely artistic language, and because it operates from the perspective of one person but at the same time depicts a whole group of people, each of whom has his or her own life and dignity.
Working on this screenplay was like being a composer setting a libretto to music. You have to find the core, the substance of the story and then try to develop a completely new language in an entirely different medium.

Where does the core, the substance of this story lie?

Michael Sturminger: Basically it’s an impossible love story, a love story between mother and son. But it’s not an erotic love affair, I mean it’s not about incest or other things like that, but about the impossibility of a relationship. There are several protagonists in this film, who all act according to what they’ve learnt from life, living around a child who has to try to put together all the different impressions and influences to make a functioning picture of the world.