PODCAST |Matt Micucci interviews David Bartlett, director of the film Mousie.

To listen to the interview, click on the ► icon on the right, just above the picture

A conversation with David Bartlett, director of the short film Mousie, which has been screening at various film festivals throughout the year. Eligible to be considered for an Academy Award, the film tells the story of a 7-year-old Roma girl hiding from the Nazis in Berlin in 1936 in an old Weimar Club. In this interview Bartlett talks about some of the major themes of the film, what art means in the face of tyranny and casting the role of the young protagonist of the movie.

Mousie : Berlin 1936. Hitler will soon host the Olympics, and the streets are being “cleansed” of Jews and Romani “Gypsies”. A seven-year-old Roma girl – Hélène – hides in an old Weimar Club, concealed by dancer Katharina who plans to escape Nazism and take the girl to America. Hélène won’t rest. Sneaking about, the little mouse sees everything – including the arrival of SS Hauptführer Otto, an awkward army conscript. Clumsily making a pass at Katharina, the junior officer is inches away from discovering the little mouse. Decisions have to be made fast, and only the child’s extraordinary and virtuosic ingenuity will save her now.