One of the highlights of the 2008 Cannes film festival was Marina Zenovich’s enthralling documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. As suggested by the title, the feature focuses on Polanski’s notorious sexual liaison with 13-year-old model Samantha Geimer and the resulting outcry that drove the Oscar winning filmmaker fleeing to France.

Dazed Digital: Your documentary does not have Polanski’s involvement. Did you try and contact him?
Marina Zenovich: Yes, I wrote him a letter telling him I was going to make the film and I never heard back. However, I later found out that he was dead against this documentary being made. I did meet him at the end of the filming and he said he would not let me interview him on camera. It took him a long time to decide to even meet me but he saw how hard I had worked – I mean, this project took me five years to complete. In the end I don’t think I really needed him to be in it. I don’t even know if he has seen it yet.

DD: Although your documentary vividly illustrates the media circus that surrounded the Polanski case, how important was it to you that you did not make light of what he did?
MZ: Oh that was very important. I find his work great and I think he is an interesting person but what he did was wrong. There is a fine line in keeping everything in check and I was very aware of not being too easy on him. But some people have still asked me why I did not put my own opinion in the narrative and I tell them that this is not the type of film I wanted to make.

DD: Aside from Polanski is there anyone who you tried to get for your documentary but who would not speak to you?
MZ: I tried to get Samantha’s mother. I attempted to get to her through her daughter, who spoke with her for me, but she wouldn’t do it. However, she finally saw the film and came to the New York premiere in support of it and of her daughter. She told me she was sorry she never spoke to me and was pleased with how fair I had made the documentary.

DD: Was it difficult to get Samantha to speak on camera?
MZ: It was actually harder to get the lawyers to talk. Polanski's lawyer was the hardest to get. In fact, I had to court him for a good couple of years!

DD: If you had sat down with Polanski, what would you have asked him?
MZ: That is a good question because, really, what is he going to say after all this time? I think in my country it is very important to apologise and Americans probably don’t feel as if he ever gave this great big apology. So I would have tried to get him to do that.