Martin I. Petrov

• View
• Edit

Morgan Matthews is a successful filmmaker and producer, mainly known for a number of documentaries like Beautiful Young Minds and Shooting Bigfoot. X+Y is his first feature film, inspired by a the true story of a young boy, diagnosed to be on the autistic spectrum, who travelled from the UK to China to participate in a mathematical olympiad. There, he did not only succeed in pursuing his dream, but also in discovering friendship, love and in finding his real self. 

You have done a lot of documentary but never fiction. What inspired you to make a change? 

I haven’t done any dram, not a short film, nothing. So, it was quite a big leap for me. In some ways, there were aspects of the procedure that very very familiar to me and others that were quite alien - so I had to learn a lot. The similarity is that in both documentary and fiction we tell stories, sometimes in a very similar way. What was nice this time is the fact that I got to work with actors, which was much different. Documentary filmmaking is more of an eliciting a performance or creating an environment where a person would feel more comfortable to share a certain story. What’s good about documentaries is that it’s real and you don't necessarily know what is going to happen. At some point, though, I realised that I have started filming and telling stories in the same way and I felt the need to be creatively challenged. And this challenge was X+Y. 

X+Y is inspired by Beautiful Young Minds, a documentary you made some years ago about the British squad at the International Mathematical Olympiad. What made you focus specifically on Daniel Lightwing, a young man on the autistic spectrum who participated in the IMO and who inspired Nathan’s character in X+Y? 

I was always fascinated by Daniel. I met several extraordinary people while doing the documentary but Daniel’s journey was so interesting. He went to China, taught himself Mandarin and came back to the UK with a Chinese girlfriend. They even got married a few months after but I thought this would be very cheesy to put as an ending of the film. He was diagnosed with Berger’s syndrome while we were filming and we were there during the whole process. He was travelling in order to find his own mathematical way, going to this competition, but at the same time it was a very personal experience after all. 

In terms of preparing Asa and the other actors for the roles, did they meet any Daniel or any other kids on the autistic spectrum? 

I definitely wanted to bring Asa and Daniel together, it was essential. Daniel is very shy and if he is in a room full of people he is usually very introvert. Most people wouldn't pay much attention to him because of that, and he actually preferred it that way. But if you actually sit alone in a room with him and talk to him he is really able to open up and articulate his experience. He thought that he is a really bad communicator but he can really express his thoughts and feelings. So, he was able to explain everything to Asa and this replay helped him in his performance. Also, Asa and Jake (who plays Luke in the film) went to a special school for kids on the autistic spectrum and spent some time together. 

We can see in the film Nathan’s transformation when he goes to taiwan for the IMO. He wasn't really communicative, he was very lonely and introvert; even touching hands with someone else was for him an unpleasant experience. How long did it actually take for Daniel to come through this transformation in real life? 

I’ve heard people asking sometimes if he actually got cured when he went to China (laughing). Nathan always had these emotions deep down, he used to hold his father’s hand for example. But when his father died he found that emotions were painful, didn't make sense to him being irrational, compared to maths - a world that he could understand. But when he went to China and he met Zhang Mei, she drew out all these things that he was hiding or suppressing fro so long. Also, he felt that he identified more with Chinese culture as it has a more mathematical way of thinking. 

Jo Yang who plays Zhang Mei said in an interview that ‘in the film Nathan helps Zhang Mei to find her inner peace and not to live for others, which is expected in the Chinese culture.’ Do you think that Nathan was actually incapable of understanding that some people could actually live for someone else, like his mother does for him, for example? 

In a way there is a number of people in the film who feel lonely or isolated - either it is Nathan or his mother, or his teacher Martin. But with Nathan it’s much different because he comes to the realisation that he has to solve some sort of bigger problems, not of mathematical nature, but in real life. He’s been so distant from his mother since his father died and now he understand that he cannot avoid facing other people or images from his past forever. 

After his father died, Nathan didn’t have a paternal figure to support him or stand by him, which also contributed to him being very shy and introvert. When he meets his teacher Martin though he doesn’t seem to see in him the father he was always missing. Do you think that he sensed in Martin some sort of vulnerability that drove him off this direction? 

I think that just because Nathan’s logic was very structured and he really respected Mr. Humphreys, he could never see it differently. He was seeing their relationship as some sort of a transaction because Martin was teaching him, they were speaking the same language, therefore Nathan liked him. Of course it’s more complicated than that for both of them. They certainly have a strong friendship, which I wouldn’t particularly describe as paternal, as Mr. Humphreys is Nathan’s only friend actually. 

The film’s presence at the film festival circuit is phenomenal so far. Would you rather make films that have great success in the festival circuit, even if this doesn't bring them that close to the general audience? 

Certainly I’ve really enjoyed this experience with X+Y. I’ve been to festivals with my documentaries before, but usually no more than 2-3 festivals with a film. There is something different with feature films though, as they are made to reach an audience and festivals can guarantee that most of the times. It’s kind of a cathartic experience too, cause you've put a lot of effort into making the film. The first time we showed the film in Toronto, it was rainy and I though there wouldn’t be a single person at the screening. Then I saw the huge queue waiting to see it and I heard their reaction during the screening - it was a unique feeling.