Pop-Culturalist.com

In the landscape of filmmaking, a special resonance emerges when collaborators unite to create on their own terms, fostering the exploration of unique narratives, experimental storytelling, and defying conventional boundaries. This passion and autonomy have acted as catalysts for remarkable films and projects like Ben and Suzanne: A Reunion in 4 Parts, whose journey to a full-length feature began a decade ago!

Written and directed by Shaun Seneviratne, Ben and Suzanne: A Reunion in 4 Parts is an innately human story that follows Ben Santhanaraj (Sathya Sridharan) as he journeys to Sri Lanka to rekindle his relationship with Suzanne Hopper (Anastasia Olowin), an American NGO worker, after a long separation.

But when Suzanne’s boss demands she work during their vacation, their love is tested by a dilemma: desire versus duty. As Suzanne struggles with the responsibilities of her job, Ben tries everything to revive their intimacy, leading to candid conversations and chaotic twists as New Year’s Eve—and Ben’s departure—looms ahead.

This partnership started over ten years ago when Shaun began masterfully crafting these layered and three-dimensional characters. Through his openness to collaboration, lead actors Sathya and Anastasia have been able to imprint their own stamp on Ben and Suzanne, infusing their journeys with color and contrast. With their nuanced portrayals, audiences are immediately enamored by the relationship of Ben and Suzanne and how it has evolved and changed over time.

Pop Culturalist had the pleasure of speaking with Shaun, Sathya, Anastasia, and producer Doron JéPaul Mitchell ahead of Ben and Suzanne: A Reunion in 4 Parts world premiere at SXSW to learn more about this special film and team, their ten-year journey to the feature, their mission to inspire others, and more.

PC: Shaun, this is such an interesting project because the film itself works on its own. But the journey that these characters have been on started with the three shorts that you’ve done in the past. How were you able to strike that balance where it’s understood that these characters have a shared past and create that intrigue where I feel like the SXSW audience is going to want to go back and look for those short films and also approach it objectively versus subjectively with regards to these characters?
Shaun: With each short, the whole idea was for everything to feel like a standalone. I’m not interested in presenting it as a sequel. This movie can be totally enjoyed without any knowledge of those short films or that shared universe. What I’m much more interested in is setting up the scenario. This is the circumstance. I actually think that as audiences, we don’t always need to have all the information upfront. That can lead to more engaging audience interaction with all the movies.

So, yeah, all the shorts really became a way to explore what I was interested in exploring at that time with the different facets of this relationship. That’s what’s really cool. Without the shorts, I wouldn’t know these projects in the same way that I do now. That’s how I got to know who Ben and Suzanne are through Sathya and Anastasia coming on board and how it developed from there. That very much reflected my taste at the time, very Hiroshima Mon Amour and Wong Kar-wai. Those were the directors that were very much on my mind, and that was what I was exploring there.

With Chill of Loneliness, that became a different exploration where we’re looking at separation and what it’s like when two people are apart. It became a snapshot of that particular moment, in a very different style from the first one, where I was exploring influences like [Robert] Bresson and Takeshi Kitano, directors who really use one shot for one moment. I was fascinated by exploring that aesthetic concept with that story.

Each one feels very distinct. There’s one that’s still unreleased, which is the third part that Anastasia and I shot on the location scout in Sri Lanka. It will be called The Noble Intentions of Suzanne Hopper. That one has a vibe of a home movie. I was thinking a lot about Jonas Mekas and was heavily influenced by a silent film for that one as well. Each one becomes its own cool exploration. I hope it’s really rewarding for folks when they go back to watch it and they get to see some of that shared history.

I’m very interested in how we meet these characters now and the journey is just starting. We’ll go from here. You may have noticed in the film that I don’t talk about how long they’ve been in a relationship because it’s not the most important thing to specify, like saying, “They’ve been together for three months or they’ve been together for three years.” That imposes a preconceived judgment in the audience’s head of what they think it should be. Love is love. You could feel that after three months. You could feel it after three years or not feel it for 50 years. It’s really about dropping into the very present, in-the-moment experience.

PC: Anastasia and Sathya, it’s so rare in film to have the opportunity to continually step back into a character’s shoes. There’s so much trust that’s needed between the two of you, especially given where your characters are in this film, where you feel that immense love between Ben and Suzanne, but it’s taken a different form. How has this partnership grown over time, and how has the trust that you’ve built on those shorts empowered each of you to make the creative decisions throughout this film and explore the nuances of this relationship and how it’s evolved?
Sathya: Anastasia and I met in a stairwell in Shaun’s apartment. We were going to have an audition. While that may not have been the best circumstances to be working with somebody and meeting them for the first time, it shows that instinctive trust and bravery we had with each other. That trust, both with each other and with Shaun, has only grown since then.

Anastasia and I sort of come from similar backgrounds with our training and the circle of people that we know in New York. It feels like this artistic family. To come back to this every few years over the last decade has been invigorating artistically, but also these characters have grown as we’ve grown. These characters are not the same as they were in The Tourist. Their DNA is similar, the relationship dynamic is still there, but there’s more life experience that we’ve been able to accrue.

It’s been a real blessing. Not many projects get that. You think of [Richard] Linklater and those projects where you get to grow with actors. It’s like an old Russian model of how to create art where you’re living with something for so long and never really performing it, but just living with these characters.

Anastasia: I’ll second all of that. Also, Shaun has been so generous with us in terms of letting the characters and ourselves meet each other in a way. As Sathya said, we’ve grown as people, and Shaun has allowed our characters to grow as people along with us. There’s a lot of our own DNA in Ben and Suzanne, and a lot of things that are different and have shifted. So it’s been a really special experience to be able to grow alongside a version of myself in a way.

PC: Doron, the company that you founded, Thermostat Media, has a mission to shift the climate of entertainment. What was it about this script that resonated with you? How does Ben and Suzanne accomplish what you set out to do with your company?
Doron: That’s a great question. My father once gave me the phrase, “Dare to be a thermostat and not a thermometer.” Thermostats shift the atmosphere around you, while thermometers adapt to the climate.

For me as an artist and creative architect, it’s important to always be shifting the creative industry one degree at a time. Ben and Suzanne as a project embodies the concept of two artists working together for the greater part of a decade in various forms and mediums, expressing themselves in different ways.

To have a first-time feature director who is also a full-time high school teacher and can inspire the youth not only through methodology but also through physical practice is remarkable. There’s nothing like having a seventeen-year-old who may want to make a film after seeing their seemingly boring high school teacher suddenly at SXSW with Ryan Gosling and beyond.

Anastasia: Shaun’s not boring. Shaun’s not boring. He’s cool Mr. Shaun. [laughs]

Doron: To a seventeen-year-old kid. [laughs] To see them share a stage with some of their idols like Ryan Gosling and beyond, those are the kinds of things that disrupt systems. Those are the seeds that evoke change. To see a Southeast Asian story explored in a normal place and setting that’s more centered around just a romantic relationship and not necessarily, “This is my Southeast Asian experience” or “This is my Sri Lankan experience.” As a Black man, it’s the same thing for me. We’re starting to see more and more stories like that, and all of those things shift the climate.

For me, it was almost a no-brainer when I came across it because I felt like there’s nothing like being able to join the journey of someone who is really interested in doing that. It was pretty straightforward at that point.

PC: Shaun, this film has been over a decade in the making. It’s the first time that a narrative feature by a Sri Lankan director has premiered in the United States. What does this moment mean to you? Have you had time to reflect on the fact that for so many aspiring young filmmakers, especially from where you’re from, they will see this and be inspired to realize the endless possibilities?
Shaun: It’s kind of wild. There’s a certain responsibility in being the first in some ways. I’m not the first South Asian, but as a Sri Lankan person, it’s significant. I met a Sri Lankan filmmaker yesterday. We are such a smaller part of the larger diaspora. There’s already this outsider quality and I think it’s going to inspire folks that are Sri Lankan, but I hope that it’s going to be inspiring for everyone like the way Clerks inspired me when I saw it at ten. That movie made me realize you can make movies. I always thought it wasn’t a possibility. I was obsessed with Tim Burton’s Batman. It wasn’t until I saw Clerks and what Kevin Smith did with a credit card and his friends that I was like, “Well, that’s an awesome movie and I love it. That’s the kind of thing I want to do.” I hope it’s inspiring to people that want to make art, and of course, South Asians too, but I really do want it to go beyond that because the attitude we had towards making this film is that we need to do it and we’re going to do it by any means necessary. However, we’re going to figure out how to do it. That’s the DIY way.

I feel very grateful and indebted to punk rock for instilling these values. A lot of people, especially independent filmmakers, feel like you have to find the right time. You got to wait. We’re going to spend eight years raising money and you have to do it in a certain way, but you don’t. We were able to do this in a totally unique way and I hope it inspires folks to say, “Yes, it’s time to make a movie,” and not, let’s hedge our bets and wait.

That’s what I’m hoping will be inspiring about the story of this movie and the movie itself. I just want to see people making cool stuff and feel idiosyncratic with their vision. I hope that’s the takeaway. If you want to make something, you have to make it.

PC: Anastasia, speaking of firsts, this is also your feature film debut. What was the most surprising part about this experience for you? What was the biggest takeaway that you’ve now been able to bring to future projects?
Anastasia: Shaun and I share a similar attitude in the idea that if you want to make it, just make it. That’s been in my ethos already. But in terms of making a feature for the first time, I’m just blessed that this was the group of people that I got to do that with. It’s such a special project. It’s so significant to me and has been so significant to me as an artist for so many years to have this home base of a film family. To see it realized in its feature form, which was always the intention even when we went to make the short originally, has been such a special experience. I feel very grateful that my feature debut is something that’s so close to my heart.

PC: Sathya, you’ve also said in the past that it’s so rare for South Asian actors to get roles that are this complex and layered. You’ve been such a trailblazer for your community. Have you had time to reflect on your own contributions that you’ve made in this movement towards more diverse storytelling? How do you hope this performance and film open doors for aspiring South Asian creatives who want to play these nuanced roles?
Sathya: That’s very kind of you to say. I don’t think of myself as a trailblazer. I feel like I’m walking a path that has been blazed for me. I feel very grateful for all of those who have come before me, many of whom are at this festival right now. There’s such an influx of amazing South Asian stories at SXSW right now.

I got distracted by the nice things you were saying, but I guess I’ll just say that I haven’t been able to reflect on this. It’s been such a whirlwind. I’m really proud that we were able to make a film with South Asian characters that is about identity and more than identity, and all of the complexities of identity that I think this film is helping widen the aperture of what South Asian stories and South Asian bodies on film can be and can look like. They can be messy, complex, skinny, and neurotic. All these various shades of human experience can exist in these stories.

I’m just excited for Shaun to be able to continue telling those stories because Shaun is able to wriggle into these really weird pockets of specificity using a South Asian character or whoever to express an innate humanity.

We need more of that. That’s why independent storytelling is so vital because it gives space for the full breadth of these stories and characters. So I feel really honored to be part of the first Sri Lankan-directed film for this festival. It’s a massive, massive honor.

PC: Doron, like so many people involved with this project, you’re also a multifaceted storyteller. How have your experiences producing impacted the ways in which you approach the other areas of your career and vice versa, and specifically with this project?
Doron: It’s funny. Someone at the party last night asked what I do, and I said, “I’m a creative architect. I craft stories and architect them.” I started out as an actor, and I always say acting is the icing on the cake, but storytelling and changing the narrative around what we can do as a society with the art form, that for me is the cake.

Producing feels like a lot more of the bread and butter of what it is because if you can see someone’s vision in someone like Shaun or a talented actor like Sathya, who was the reason why I went to grad school in the first place, or at least picked NYC, which is a twelve-year journey in itself. If you can see these stories come out, it stops things from being the first.

For me, that is the ultimate thermostat shift. If we can get a world where there are no longer firsts, but instead it’s new or refreshing, that for me as a producer, writer, director, and also an actor is the ultimate level of inspiration and in many ways leaves a legacy that’s far greater than yourself because the goal is not me, me, me, look how great I am, but how quickly you can go, again, there was a seventeen-year-old Sri Lankan high school student who thought Shaun was incredibly cool and loves the 1975 and went on to create the next great wave of films. In many ways, we forget that Shaun was the first because there were so many. That for me is the goal. If I can help inspire others to do that with their stories, if it means me being an actor in their project, great, but if it means me being a producer, awesome.

Make sure to follow Shaun (Twitter/Instagram), Sathya (Twitter/Instagram), Anastasia (Instagram), and Doron (Instagram).

Ben and Suzanne: A Reunion in 4 Parts Screening Times at SXSW:

• Alamo Lamar 5 – Mar 11, 2024 (7:15pm—9:04pm)
• Alamo Lamar 6 – Mar 12, 2024 (5:45pm—7:34pm)
• Alamo Lamar 9 – Mar 14, 2024 (2:30pm—4:19pm)

Photo Credit: Luke Fontana (Anastasia) // Mari Uchid (Doron)