deana about bathory

Financing of the production is definitely the most difficult problem. The fact that we are actually filming locally but involved in an international co-production is increasing the budget: we have to keep certain production standards and criteria of an international production. The crew is working under different terms in an international production and this only adds to the total cost. Historical films are very demanding financially and that alone explains why our budget is so high. On the other hand, I believe that, in Europe, we are still committed to making films with reasonable budgets – if our film was to be shot outside Europe it might have cost $100-120m. We are filming in Slovakia and Czech Republic, but not in Hungary. Hungary is just part of the co-production. That is also because the story actually took place in what is today Slovakia, even if Bathory was Hungarian. As for the renaissance castle interiors, these are filmed in the Czech Republic but we had to re-create the underground part of Bathory’s castle in Bratislava’s Koliba Studios. It’s funny, but if we hadn’t done so our actors might have walked off and abandoned us. Because when the temperature outside is, for instance, 40 degrees, in a real castle, in the catacombs it can be as low as three degrees…