Filmmaker Nadia Tass always knew she was going to work with actors. Having joined a film society at the age of 12, she recalls being the youngest member there with her face glued to the screen.

“I was always independent… and the only way to maintain control is to have your own company.”

“I was always going to be a director,” she tells Neos Kosmos without a moments’ hesitation.

“There was no way I was not going to serve my vision.”

And thank goodness for that. The director has gone on to become the household name behind some of Australia’s most loved films, amongst them Rikky and Pete (1988), The Big Steal (1990), Amy (1997) and her 1986 début feature Malcolm, which went on to receive eight Australian Film Institute Awards and 23 awards internationally.

Ms Tass’ most recent achievement was being awarded the 2014 Film Victoria Screen Leader Award for an outstanding contribution to the screen industry.

“I wasn’t expecting it,” she says enthusiastically.

“I’m honoured and grateful for the recognition and to be recognised by my peers in my home town.”

Nadia Tass’ life is a juggling act; always working on more than one project at a time, along with being a mother and wife, she can be a difficult woman to get a hold of.

Originating in Florina of northern Greece, Ms Tass was raised by her migrant parents reading classics such as Euripides and Aristophanes. Completing her studies at the University of Melbourne and in the United States, by the time she was in her mid 20s she realised she wanted as much creative control over her work as possible.

“I was always independent, like fiercely,” she says.

“And the only way to maintain control is to have your own company.”

With Cascade Films she has achieved exactly that.

Started with her husband, Australian cinematographer David Parker, the film studio – a creative hub for the arts – originally located in Port Melbourne until its relocation to South Melbourne eight years ago, was frequented by writers such as P.J. Hogan (Muriel’s Wedding (1994)) and Andrew Bovell (Speaking in Tongues, adapted as Lantana (2001)).

Although identifying as an Australian filmmaker, throughout her 25 years in the industry Nadia has never shied away from travelling to whichever part of the world the story takes her, whether it be Hollywood or South Africa.

Her latest project, Tying the Knot, will find the director dividing her time between Melbourne and Shanghai. A Chinese-Australian co-production, the film’s plot follows a Chinese exchange student studying at the University of Melbourne and the love story that unfolds between her and an Australian boy. Despite inter-racial romantic relationships being quite common, the couple’s union gives rise to a whole host of culture complexities; a story that the director says she can easily relate to growing up in multicultural Australia.

“The reason I want to make this film is to find the similarities between the two cultures,” she tells Neos Kosmos.

“We think we’re different, but we’re not necessarily.”

With both Greece and China being ancient civilisations, Ms Tass can’t help but relate it back to her Greek upbringing, which she recalls as being somewhat strict. Both Nadia and her siblings were expected to behave a certain way, her parents making sure they spoke in the appropriate register to different people. And all this falls into place for the director when she goes to China.

“Even in reading the script, I found it very easy to immerse myself into that world and to identify what elements were not sitting right with the Chinese culture,” she says of her current project.

“Then checking those elements with Chinese friends it was spot on. Not because I have a sixth sense, but because of my Greek heritage.”

With an insatiable interest in the study of human behaviour, it is something that she has come to understand better over time, aiding her in her craft.
Reflecting back on a theatre production she directed at just 18, a Spanish play by playwright and poet Federico Garcia Lorca entitled Blood Wedding, she’s her own harshest critic.

Despite the positive feedback she received the director now feels the play needed more depth.

“There needs to be a lot of knowledge about the human condition before one can direct,” she tells Neos Kosmos.

“I don’t think I have fully realised that story [Blood Wedding] in the best way I can. I needed to have evolved to a certain point, to a certain time, in order to truly arrive at a mature point where I can realise that to its full dimension.”

Often described as an ‘actor’s director’, when asked within which medium her true passion lies – film or the theatre – she simply replies: “Everywhere – it’s storytelling. I am a storyteller.”

It is not uncommon for actors to dabble in directing, nor for directors to start writing their own scripts. However, after being exposed to all facets of the film and theatre industries, this is one director content with staying to her side of the art form, leaving the script writing to others.
“The reason I don’t write and direct is because I want the writer to give me what the writer’s going to give me,” she says.

“Then I want to take it to that other dimension. There are a lot of mediocre examples and I don’t want to fall into that.”

As one of Australia’s most unique filmmakers, she is known for bringing together elements of both humour and pathos by influence of the classics, making it easy for her work to communicate with an audience and transcend borders. This has been realised in the great success her films have seen abroad, particularly in France, Japan, Korea and the United States.

Her feature film Malcolm (1986) made a big splash internationally before receiving the recognition it deserved in Australia, while Amy (1997) was a huge hit at Cannes. The director recalls students of all ages busting into the film festival to catch a glimpse due to its controversial nature. The film focuses on a little girl who does not speak but can sing perfectly, a story that really captured the hearts of the French, who felt the need to put it in the school curriculum.

“What I find is, people really connect with the human elements and the challenges that human beings within these stories are faced with and how they navigate these challenges,” says Ms Tass.

Despite the entertaining element of her work, upon closer inspection it quickly becomes evident that Nadia’s films are multilayered and constantly pushing the boundaries, making no secret of the fact that she uses the medium as a means to speak out about her concerns.

“A lot of the time the arts are considered dispensable,” she says.

“In my opinion that is the wrong thing to do – not to address the needs of the arts – because it’s a record of our existence. It’s something that a mathematical equation is not going to do.”

With Tying the Knot currently in pre-production, the director has a number of exciting projects on her agenda, one of which is a British production, The Hunt for Sister Edith, set to be shot in Budapest.