Capital Conversations: Isa Willinger, Director of “No Mercy”

By Maurice Burbridge | December 1, 2025 

Photo Credit: Doro Götz | © TondowskiFilms, FlairFilm

In “No Mercy” Isa Willinger sets herself on a mission to determine if women make harsher films than men, after her muse Kira Muratova–one of many influential but under-appreciated female directors in the history of cinema–asserted such to be the truth. Earlier this month, “No Mercy” had its North American premiere at DOC NYC, and is now available to stream until Nov. 30th. Willinger spoke with us about the film, feminism, the female gaze, and more.

“I think ‘No Mercy’ is a wild journey through some of the history of women's filmmaking and non-binary directors’ filmmaking,” said Willinger. “t's also a celebration of women and non-binary directors filmmaking in some ways. It's a new angle to look at it really, a new unexpected angle.”

The film’s thesis originates from a comment Muratova made to Willinger about how she thought women made harsher films, after watching films presented at the International Women’s Film Festival in the 80s. This stuck with Willinger because of its unexpectedness and the imagination it provoked.

“There's the cliche of women; the chick flick, women making sort of loving romantic movies, psychological films and relationships and so on. So when somebody tells you the opposite is actually the case, you become interested right away because it sort of opens up a space of imagination or maybe things are actually very different,” Willinger explained.

This originality is part of what drew Willinger to Muratova: after being bored with Russian/Soviet culture through her studies, the Ukrainian avant-garde director was a fresh alternative. “I found that so brave, especially as a woman, that she would not try to play by the rules of the system that was given to her, but that she really challenged all those rules and norms of cinema language,” said Willinger.

“No Mercy” depicts interviews with filmmakers including Catherine Breillat, Marzieh Meshkini, Celine Sciamma, and Joey Soloway. It was important to Willinger to show filmmakers from different cultural backgrounds with enough time for viewers to get to know them. “I didn’t want 100 or 50 filmmakers and only have one minute with each,” she said.

Two other factors largely influenced the selection of the included filmmakers. “It was also important that their films were inspirational to me,” said Willinger. “And that they had either some relation to harshness–whatever that means, because that can mean different things as we discover in the movie–or some relation to feminism or feminist film making.”

Jackie Buet, who founded the International Women’s Film Festival in 1978 and continues to lead it today, is the only non-filmmaker interviewed, as Willinger wanted to learn more about the festival. “Was it maybe a particular time in filmmaking that had a particular expressiveness or a particular film language or particular subjects that we might have forgotten about?”

The interview sequences include little interjection from Willinger–an intentional choice. “I hoped that it would be enough to experience them and get to know them by what they were saying and by the film clips we were showing,” she said.

“No Mercy” includes excerpts of more than 40 relevant films, though she watched many more. “I watched hundreds of films for the research and it was like a second film school to me,” Willinger said.

She mentioned discovering the work of filmmaker Andrea Arnold, and Barbara Loden’s 1970 film “Wanda.” Willinger also praised “Saint Omer” from Alice Diop, who’s interviewed in “No Mercy,” as an excellent example of women in cinema being positioned as a subject rather than an object, made more significant by this elevated character being a black woman.

As the film plays out, the conversation slowly drifts away from just whether or not women make harsher films, with the direction changing so much that Willinger used a new composer than who she originally planned.

“I think the art of moviemaking has all these amazing tools and possibilities to create openness in people's minds and to raise questions and to irritate and to confuse and to make [them] happy and angry and all these things. So when things sort of get unhinged, I think then that's when it becomes interesting. So I was ecstatic when I realized it's becoming much more messy than I thought it would be,” she said.

Several featured filmmakers offered different perspectives on the female gaze. Willinger herself finds the term, coined in response to the male gaze, to be binary, and thinks discussion is more important than a set term, but that it is not entirely unfounded.

“When I see a film by a woman or non-binary director, I sometimes find that there's moments in it that are touching me in a way that I haven't experienced before because other films aren't speaking in that language,” said Willinger.

In “No Mercy”, Ana Lily Amirpour, one of the interviewed filmmakers, describes identifying with male characters deeply and without a problem. Willinger finds this a lovely example of the queerness of the movie watching experience, She says “we can identify with whoever in a way and that's actually beautiful.”

“I think there's like 5% of that statement where I don't totally agree because I think watching all these movies made by men with male central characters that are maybe wonderfully made and you can identify with almost fully, but then there is this little bit that is left of your own identity that is not spoken to,” said Willinger.

She added “in films by Andrea Arnold, for example, one of my favorite woman directors, I feel like 110% spoken to, completely fully and more intense than in a wonderful film by, let's say, Jim Jarmusch, which I also love…So there's just something maybe I would add to her comment.”

Ultimately, Willinger said “all the parts I chose to be in the film I found sort of interesting enough not to literally disagree with it even though maybe I don't 100% agree with it." The editing process took 8 months, and only halfway through did she realize she needed to include more of herself in the edit to explain her motivations, after advice from producer Paula Vaccaro.

For the next generation of female and nonbinary filmmakers, Willinger says “there’s so many issues that need examining and need exploring. So just look into the world, you'll get all the inspiration and motivation you need to pick up a camera, it’s just right there at your fingertips actually.”

“No Mercy” is available to stream through the online portion of DOC NYC until November 30th.