The Long Walk Director Mattie Do Explains The Personal Nature Of The Film And Why She Was Drawn To It

The Laos sci-fi/horror film The Long Walk streaming now is a moving, emotionally resonant genre film, unlike anything you’ve seen before. It’s easy to say that and not mean it, but The Long Walk is one of those truly unique experiences that is singularly tied to the culture of the people represented and the voice of the director. The gorgeously envisioned film by Director Mattie Do solidifies her spot as a filmmaker to watch.

The Long Walk is a hard film to define but an easy one to watch. Written from a script by Christopher Larsen and directed by Mattie Do, The Long Walk defies expectations. The ruminative tale is haunting on many levels. Genre lovers like innovative stories that make you think and feel. The Long Walk is precisely that kind of film. It is intensely life-affirming in its horror, and the relatable actions of the protagonists speak to the heart of what this film is really about. Fate, determinism, and disastrous life choices propel the time-traveling story forward through tragedy and violence. This is a film full of pain and about how that pain influences us.

The dystopian supernatural thriller is set in two timelines, a bleak near-future world and a desperate past. In the grim near-future, a tired older man scavenges while just beyond the jungle he calls home. A booming future world looms but is never explored. Only the market on the outskirts of the deepest jungle is ever shown in its bustling chaotic glory. These early scenes are a jarring reminder that nothing is as it seems here just before a ghostly silent presence sagely holds the older man’s eyes as he ponders why she has never spoken in all the fifty years he has known her. Mind you, the woman hardly looks past her thirties, much less her fifties, though. That’s the first of several incongruous surprises that lay the groundwork for the moving thriller to come.

An antiquated bit of holographic tech rears up, making it difficult to understand what year we are in. That becomes even more confounding as the story unfolds. This is a film about time but not in the traditional sense. It is about what time and grief do to a person. Sliding doors, seemingly inconsequential choices that have disastrous effects and torment, so much suffering bombard the senses. Any fan of time traveling stories understands there is a price to pay for changing the past regardless of the reasoning. Mattie Do’s film The Long Walk puts a fresh spin on this concept utilizing cultural touchstones and supernatural elements. I was lucky enough to sit down with the lovely Mattie Do and pick her brain about all things The Long Walk and what it means to be the only female Laos director.

This story resonated with Do because all humans can relate to the idea of an afterlife. What happens after we die. She said, “As humans, we feel so exceptional. We can’t possibly just die”. She further explained that Southeast Asian people strongly believe in ghosts and spirits. “Ghosts are spoken about like they’re tangible, physical presences in your life.” She wanted to have her ghost be a real person, not a grotesque monster such as depicted in films like Ringu or Ju-On. She grew up hearing stories about ghosts, and she was very excited to put the things into a film she had been hearing about since childhood.

The film feels very personal because Do pulled from two specific instances in her life. The death of her mother from cancer and the loss of her beloved dog Mango, were memories that directly impacted her direction. Both events shaped her feelings about death, resignation, responsibility, and grief. Although she describes herself as a fatalist, the film is very much about acceptance of one’s fate. The idea that the more we rail against our destiny, the more we are doomed to create obstacles to happiness for ourselves and others runs throughout the film. It was almost a catharsis for her.

When asked about the film’s setting, Do described in loving detail the extraordinary house that was found ready for demolition in the jungle that was meticulously dismantled and reassembled on their closed set. It looks “legitimately old and lived in” because it was. Additionally, she utilized an actual working market, and the customers and stall owners were actual Lao residents. That attention to detail brings authenticity to the film and the story that leaves a lasting impression. Although a fantastical tale spanning decades, it feels from a universal time that the lush jungle setting preserves. The all-important clearing where our protagonist first encounters his spiritual guide was created by elephants whose daily interactions there gradually formed the natural circular form of the space.

On the titular moment when everything in the film finally makes sense, Do described the difficulty of getting just the right shot. She said the handheld camera and skeleton crew worked to create the ideal scene of confusion and shock. Do had a very specific idea about the look and sound of the CGI sky effect as well. She wanted a plane to “burst through the clouds,” and she designed the sound herself from multiple sonic jet noises. It’s not unusual for independent filmmakers to wear many hats, but to do so in the middle of the jungle on a shoestring budget in a country like Laos, which is only in its film infancy, is an incredible task.

In speaking with Mattie Do, I never got the sense she understood how great her film was or how impressive what she was doing was. She spoke of the frustrations and awesome responsibility for Lao people in general and Lao women, in particular, to be represented. She said she wanted to make a film that was female-forward. The Long Walk may seem like a story about our male protagonist, but you are actually watching the spirit’s story. It is Do’s “hat trick.” The Long Walk is a patient film that grips you without realizing you are already absorbed. It lingers on the edges and forces you to ask questions about guilt, responsibility, and lasting grief.

The Long Walk is currently streaming on Apple TV, and Do is working on three new films. She is never one to shy away from a story, and her three next projects prove that. One is a story about love and quantum entanglement. The second is a Lao creature feature, and the third is a social commentary film with a killer twist. “Film should be fun,” Do says. Her movies transcend fun. They are impactful and lasting.