Brit Marling (Another Earth) and Zal Batmanglij (The Recordist) have come a long way in a very short time. The two met only a few years ago while attending Georgetown University, and they were attracted by their mutual love of films from both high and low culture – they cite both The Terminator and the films of Krzysztof Kieslowski as major influences.
Their interest in both summer blockbusters and small arthouse dramas led them to ask, when working on their own film, in Marling’s words, “Why not put those things together?”
The film this ethos produced was Sound of My Voice, a knotty, ambiguous thriller about a pair of documentary filmmakers infiltrating a cult led by a woman who claims to be from the future. The woman, Maggie, is played by Marling, who co-wrote the film with director Batmanglij.
Marling has seen previous cinematic success, having starred in the critically praised Another Earth (which she also co-wrote with fellow Georgetown alum Mike Cahill), which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival with Sound of My Voice.
The film was shot at breakneck speed – filming was completed in little more than a couple of weeks – and produced on a shoestring budget, a set of circumstances Batmanglij said forced the cast and crew to work at peak efficiency.
To play the parts of the two leads, Peter and Lorna, a romantically involved pair of amateur investigative journalists, Marling and Batmanglij insisted on unfamiliar faces.
“We were really into the idea of not casting recognizable actors, because it was more claustrophic,” Batmanglij said.
Still, they needed performers who could carry dramatic weight and keep up with Marling’s slippery cult leader. They settled on Christopher Denham, who had played opposite Leonardo DiCaprio (J. Edgar) in Shutter Island, and Nicole Vicius, who shared a scene with Ryan Gosling (Drive) in Half Nelson.
The idea for the film – which was partially inspired by a dream Batmanglij had – came when he and Marling relocated to the Los Angeles area, where the film is set. The pair explained that something about the environment made cults crop up with surprising regularity.
They worked hard to reserve judgment and maintain an attitude of open-mindedness toward Maggie and her followers.
“I think group think is kind of appealing,” Batmanglij said. “The idea of turning yourself over to a larger meaning is appealing.”
The film treats Maggie with ambiguity, avoiding easy answers and leaving it to the audience to sort out truth from falsehood. Batmanglij and Marling prefer to leave the work open to any interpretation, even at the risk of leaving viewers unsatisfied.
“Any opinion you feel strongly about is valid,” Batmanglij said. “And if you feel befuddled and confused, well, I feel befuddled and confused every day.”
rgifford@umdbk.com