Film is published#73 by the Danish Film Institute / November 2011

IDFA issue 2011 The Ambassador Putin’s Kiss Ballroom dancer The Will Love addict The kid and the clown Karen Blixen PAGE 2 / FILM#73 / IDFA ISSUE 2011 editorial / short news / FILM#73 / PAGE 3

if you don’t go to extremes, 10 14 why even go? / EDITORIAL

Director Janus Metz onboard the good ship Activ. Framegrab

05 16 22 If you don’t go to extremes, why even go? the Danish COBRA artist Asger Jorn physical and violent visual tale, Rupture once said. His words naturally spring to mind when looking at the current crop of From Helmand centres on a woman and issues like Danish documentaries. They go to extremes. They have guts and they take chances – to the End of sexuality, instinct and death. While artistically, thematically and personally. Hamre challenged Metz’s artistic tem- the World perament and method, the filmmaker A prime example is journalist and master of role-playing Mads Brügger. The cover also recognised a shared interest in the of this magazine shows him dancing with a group of plastered Pygmies celebrating taboo and the subconscious. INSIDE his plan to build a match factory in their village. Elsewhere in the magazine, a critic JANUS METZ established his “Armadillo went quite far in describ- asks, “Is it okay for Brügger to travel in an African country as a diplomat, while international documentary ing the shadow sides of the human filming his experiences as a documentarian and a reporter?” And the answer is, “Of credentials in 2010 when he psyche,” Metz says. “I wanted to go 03 Editorial and short news 24 Karen Blixen — Behind her Mask course not! That’s why The Ambassador hits home so hard.” And perhaps that’s took home the top prize from into that space and explore it further. / IDFA Reflecting Images: Panorama why it was picked to open the world’s most important documentary film festival. the Critic’s Week in Cannes for In a way, I was working with the same 05 The Ambassador Karen Blixen, an icon in Danish literary history, his tough film about a group of story but within an abstract framework. / IDFA Feature-Length Competition once told Morten Henriksen’s father that she had There is no doubt that The Ambassador is out to provoke and stir debate – about the Danish soldiers in Afghanistan. The chance to work in a fictional uni- Mads Brügger takes his intricate role-playing to a formed a pact with the devil. film’s journalistic methods and handling of its characters. Now the director is plunging into verse unleashed a virtual image storm FILM#73 Amsterdam issue new level in The Ambassador. The questionable nature a collective project about the end in me.” November 2011 of his method is part of the message. 26 Four Danish films at IDFA Forum But there is also no doubt that Brügger, putting himself on the line, is trying to tell a of the world, because “it sounded From the nooks and crannies of the Published by Danish Film Institute different truth about North and South, and the extent of our compassion, than the too cool”. human mind, Metz is now venturing Editor Susanna Neimann (SN) 09 The Ambassador in perspective 28 Hybrid films one presented to us in yet another well-intentioned primetime fundraising show. into a new collective film project. Co-editor Annemarie Hørsman (AH) That a diplomatic passport can be bought points to a The trend of mixing the methods and vocabulary of That’s where his method is vindicated. Tracking a group of soldiers over six The Expedition to the End of the World is Editorial support Lars Fiil-Jensen (LFJ), Anders Budtz-Jørgensen (ABJ), Anne Marie key feature of Brügger’s film and the world we live in fiction and documentary is not new, says Jakob Høgel, months in Afghanistan’s Helmand a journey into the innermost recesses Kürstein, Malene Flindt Pedersen, Klara Grun- today, says researcher Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen. artistic director of New Danish Screen. The Ambassador is supported by New Danish Screen, the talent development Province, Armadillo exposes the of northern Greenland’s fjord systems ning-Harris, Helle Hansen, Dorte Høeg Brask subsidy scheme whose purpose includes inspiring innovation of cinematic language human consequences of sending aboard the ship Activ. Loaded with Translations Glen Garner 10 Putin’s Kiss 30 To watch out for and storytelling. Investigation and experimentation are encouraged to keep young people to war as ideals clash scientists and artists, the ship is the frame Design Rasmus Koch Studio / IDFA Feature-Length Competition AD/design Pernille Volder Lund Meet two documentary directors to watch out for. cinematic aesthetics alive and in motion. Talents get a chance to see if their offbeat with reality. The fear of sudden death around a story about the origin of the Type Holton, Akzidenz-Grotesk, Cendia Seduction and politics are two sides of the same coin, ideas will translate to the big and small screens. makes the soldiers increasingly wary world, the demise of humankind and Paper Munken Lynx 100 g Lise Birk Pedersen discovers in her new film from Russia. 31 Turning and cynical about the Afghans they life continuing on the planet. Having Printed by Rosendahls-Schultz Grafisk Charles Atlas and Åsa Mossberg joined forces on The courage to go to extremes can be manifested in a multitude of ways. The Danish were sent out to help. finished first leg of the expedition, Circulation 4,000 ISSN 1399-2813 (print version) 14 Ballroom Dancer Atlas and Antony’s new film Turning. documentaries at IDFA are products of filmmakers having the energy, skill and The film was a big hit in Danish however, Metz is anything but pes- ISSN 1903-7511 (online version) / IDFA First Appearance Competition courage to go all the way. cinemas and is now in wide interna- simistic. Cover The Ambassador. Photo by Johan Stahl For two years Andreas Koefoed and Christian Bonke 32 CPH:DOX, LAB AND ART tional distribution. Armadillo triggered “We are probably trying to be a Winthereik followed Slavik, the former number one in Latin dance. Scandinavia’s largest documentary festival is constantly Energy to track their characters at moments when life’s drama comes to a head – “an explosion of attention”, launching little bit funny at the expense of the Most of the articles are written by freelance film critics and journalists. looking to inspire new creative collaborations. in the arena of big politics or in the most intimate of relationships. The skill to find Metz into a whole new orbit on the in- doomsday hysteria of the climate de- 16 The Will the cinematic device that is just right for resolving the story. And the courage to insist ternational film circuit. But more than bate. But the big question is whether FILM is the Danish Film Institute’s / IDFA Reflecting Images: Panorama 33 Omar Shargawi on a personal approach and a personal artistic expression. anything, Armadillo meant a year away our civilisation is just a tiny parenthesis international festival magazine We come extremely close to Henrik’s ups and downs in 1/2 Revolution is an eyewitness account of the Arab Spring. from active film production, as Metz between two ice ages and whether our Issued prior to the three festivals in Berlin, Christian Sønderby Jepsen’s story about a famliy split to Good documentaries need skilled filmmakers, an open-minded audience – and a had to service audiences and journal- enterprising nature will also be our Cannes and Amsterdam, the magazine pieces by a heavy past. 34 Why Poverty? broad framework. Here I’m thinking of the film-policy framework. A system that ists all over the world. undoing. As a civilisation – and in the brings articles and interviews presenting A new international project speaks about global poverty promotes innovation and focuses on talent development. A system that is willing to Now, after a much-needed hiatus on film – we have set the stage for an end- the films in competition, films in progress, 19 love Addict young talents and news stories. Catalogue through human stories. take risks. And, of course, it takes money. the heels of all the hoopla, including ing where everything goes wrong. The in the reverse section gives a view of cur- / IDFA Reflecting Images: Masters an extended stay in New York with his question is whether it will go wrong in rent Danish documentaries and short films. A development grant helped Pernille Rose Grønkjær 36 Kaspar Astrup Schröder Denmark’s new Film Agreement has improved the opportunities for funding the family, the 37-year-old director is back. the cool way or the uncool way.” SN jumpstart her next film after the success of The Monastery. What’s up? The director is out next summer development and production of documentary films in critical ways. Individual With the Danish artist Christina The Danish Film Institute is the national agency responsible for supporting and en- with a new film from Japan. films really do have a better framework now. This is happening amidst a global Hamre, Metz earlier this year made a The Expedition to the End of the couraging Danish film and cinema culture. 22 The Kid and the Clown financial crisis. It’s happening because of, and out of respect for, the high artistic work entitled Rupture under a project World is co-directed by Janus Metz and / IDFA Reflecting Images: Panorama 37 Helle Hansen quality contributed by Danish documentarians in recent years. And with it comes an funded by the Danish Film Institute’s Daniel Dencik and produced by Michael Danish Film Institute Shooting her film about Tobias and the hospital clown Meet the Danish Film Institute’s new film commissioner. obligation. An obligation to keep going to extremes. Otherwise, why even go? talent scheme New Danish Screen that Haslund-Christensen for Haslund Film. Gothersgade 55 / DK-1123 Copenhagen K T +45 3374 3400 / [email protected] Angus, Ida Grøn wanted to make sure that the story teamed up four filmmakers with four The film is pitching at FORUM, see www.dfi.dk/English took precedence over her ego as a filmmaker. 37 DFI Key Contacts Henrik Bo Nielsen, CEO artists to create a film/installation. A page 26. PAGE 4 / FILM#73 / short news THE AMBASSADOR / mads brügger / IDFA FEATURE-LENGTH COMPETITION / FILM#73 / PAGE 5

imagination with a story of makers with his film that looks at the “The interesting thing for me is to humanity’s encounter with problems of storing nuclear waste, explore what an encounter with alien intelligent life. focusing on the construction of a other intelligent life would mean to Finnish repository that is supposed to humanity’s self-image,” the filmmaker Michael Madsen recently went to last for 100,000 years. At heart, Into says. He wants the film to take a square Moscow to present his film Into Eternity Eternity is propelled by philosophical look at such an encounter: How would at a science film festival. In France the wonder at humankind: What does our we receive them, speak to them, treat radioactive waste management agency, attempt to master a time horizon of them? If we were to give them an Andra, has asked the filmmaker to 100,000 years really say about us? Essential Guide to us and planet Earth, start a think-tank focusing on how to Madsen brings a similar sense of what would be in it? communicate with the future about wonder to his next project, The Visit, “We are planning a visual setup radioactive waste. At the University which turns science fiction into reality creating a kind of pseudo-3D-effect. of California Madsen recently gave with a single intriguing question: How This is to thematise the different view Director Michael Madsen Photo: Søren Solkær Starbird a lecture in conjunction with an would we react if we got visitors from of reality that such an encounter would interdisciplinary course entitled outer space? In fact, the premise is not entail,” Madsen says. Coming from Speculative Futures. And in New York just science fiction. The UN has an a visual-arts background, he always his film was shown at the UN as a office in Vienna who ultimately would makes experiments with form central Visitors from precursor to a summit on nuclear safety. be the ones dealing with an alien visit. to the experience of his films. In the “I got an email from my American “My project is a partnership same vein, Madsen has just completed Outer Space distributor saying that Into Eternity was with the United Nations Office for Denmark’s first 3D documentary, The on Hillary Clinton’s desk. It’s interesting Outer Space Affairs which thinks Average of the Average, on objectivity How would we react if we were to me that the film is starting to up scenarios for a visit to Earth by versus subjectivity. visited by aliens? MICHAEL move into real power circles. That’s intelligent extraterrestrial life,” Madsen “The visual concept in The Visit will MADSEN, who is delighted necessary, of course, for anything to says. “It took my producer, Lise Lense- either be shit or gold,” Madsen adds to see his awardwinning happen,” Madsen says. “The film lives Møller, and me four months to get wryly. “But it’s never been seen before, documentary Into Eternity as a phenomenon out there, and I find our first meeting with them, because I’d say.” AH moving into real political that real-life dimension exciting.” they took us for ufologists. When they power forums, continues his Beyond winning a string of realised that we were actually looking The Visit is produced by Lise Lense- speculative reflections in his awards, Madsen has managed to raise to showcase their knowledge, they Møller for Magic Hour Films and is next project which tests our awareness among central decision- wholeheartedly came on board. pitching at FORUM, see page 27.

By studying Buddhist monks Davidson Funding for Danish To Re-wire has found that it is possible to re- Director Mads Brügger in The Ambassador Photo: Johan Stahl Winthereik Documentaries up to 50% the Brain wire the brain. Some of the effects are increased levels of altruism, compassion and calm. Danish documentaries are Furthermore, the DFI has set up an In her new documentary In Free the Mind we meet three thriving: films by skilled international office led by producer Free the Mind, awardwinning characters, two vets and a 5-year-old directors are making a Noemi Ferrer to strengthen cross- director Phie Ambo follows child, who all participate in Davidson’s difference in the world and border cooperation and help one of the world’s leading research program to learn yoga and new talents are coming up create international financing and neuroscientists whose research breathing in order to concentrate better strong. The artistic and popular partnerships regarding Danish shows that meditation literally and be more aware of them-selves success of the films is matched documentaries as well. can change the brain. and their surroundings. For Phie Ambo by political support, both in In terms of distribution, the films who, like the professor, practices WAY OVER THE LINE terms of production and are reaching a wider audience than For years Dr. Richard J. Davidson of meditation on a daily basis, it is very distribution. before. The share of DFI-supported the University of Wisconsin has done good news that we all have the potential Of course Mads Brügger goes over the line. He stretches his long legs and To anyone blissfully deluding themselves that Mother Africa, films shown in primetime on the research into mankind’s ability to to change at any stage in life. SN purposefully takes several steps beyond the rules, both written and unwritten. The humanity’s womb, is finally recovering after years of civil war, The new Film Agreement 2011-2014 public service TV stations has gone up create positive changes in the brain Ambassador isn’t honourable reporting. It’s morally reprehensible, deceitful even. massacres and general post-colonial madness: Don’t see this has upped the Danish Film Institute’s from 2% to 25% over the past years. and reconcile with anxiety and fear. Free the Mind is produced by Sigrid film. It offers no hope. funds for development and production The Danish Film Institute distrib- Now he sets out to discover whether Dyekjær for Danish Documentary BY PER JUUL CARLSEN of documentaries to 46.5 million kroner utes more than 1,000 shorts and meditation is what will finally allow Production. Release in Spring 2012. DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY (approx. 6.2 million euros) annually, an documentaries on its streaming war veterans to lead a normal life, www.freethemindthemovie.com That’s exactly why The Ambassador is so refreshingly The Ambassador’s journalistic impropriety mainly lies in increase of 50%. service Filmstriben.dk, which is by relieved of stress and anxiety. provocative, shocking and, indeed, truthful. In a time when Brügger’s method. He didn’t travel to the Central African On top of that, the two Danish now a stable success. A full 98% of the Dr Richard Davidson is on a the media have no qualms about treating politicians like reality Republic as a conventional journalist jotting things down on public service TV stations, DR and population has access to the films via mission. He wants to make the world show contestants and no one seems to question whether his notepad. He went as the diplomat Mr Cortzen – which is TV 2, are committed to buying 10 their local library, while two thirds of a better place. And the change must breaking the news first is always such a good idea, it’s more not, by the way, a false identity. million kroner (approx. 1.3 million the country’s schoolchildren and their come from within the brain itself. than welcome to see someone deliberately cross the line and Early in the film, Mads Johan Brügger Cortzen, as is our euros) of broadcast rights every year. teachers can watch the films in the Davidson conducts an unusual raise important questions. Is the line really in the right place? protagonist’s full name, visits a pair of shady characters who The number of films that the classroom via a school subscription. experiment. He is going to teach Who even put it there? And isn’t it better to cross the line in offer to provide him with a diplomatic passport from an Danish Film Institute will be support- It is the Danish Film Institute’s goal American war veterans breathing an original manner than unthinkingly and uncritically toe it? African nation. In Portugal, one of them, a British former elite ing has been reduced, equalling more to make documentaries freely available and yoga. Davidson’s research shows Indirectly, though loudly and clearly, Mads Brügger raises soldier, takes Brügger aside and, not knowing that Brügger funds for fewer films, which will online for all Danes in the next few that the brain is plastic, which means those questions in The Ambassador, a film that paints an is carrying a concealed camera, tells him that the title of strengthen the economy of individual years. that we can actively contribute to the unfathomably grim but also surprisingly funny picture of ambassador is immense valuable. If he uses it right, he could projects. The aim is to ensure reason- shaping of our own personalities and an Africa that is being ruthlessly raped by everyone, from take an enormous amount of wealth out of Africa, protected able financing and promote more Get the latest news on Danish film at thereby change our life journey to Europeans and North Americans to Indians, Russians and by diplomatic immunity. If he screws up, he could end up dead ambitious films. dfi.dk/English. the better. Chinese. in a ditch. Director Phie Ambo Photo: Christoffer Boe PAGE 6 / FILM#73 / THE AMBASSADOR / mads brügger / IDFA FEATURE-LENGTH COMPETITION mads brügger on the ambassador / FILM#73 / PAGE 7

Is it okay for Mads Brügger on Brügger to travel in The Ambassador an African country as a diplomat, while filming his experiences as a documentarian I wanted to make an Africa and a reporter? film that had funny moments Of course not. amidst all the horror and I That’s precisely why wanted to make a documentary The Ambassador that took Africa back to Graham hits home so hard. Greene and The Wild Geese – Africa of the 1970s. You can find that in the Central African Republic, a country that hardly anyone ever heard about. The Ambassador Photo: Johan Stahl Winthereik The Ambassador Photo: Johan Stahl Winthereik

diplomat act gets him into situations that are beyond absurd. At one point, he visits a Pygmy village to find workers for his match factory – in some parts of Africa, Pygmies are believed to have magical powers, which would obviously be an advantage for Brügger’s matches. As if it were the most natural thing in the world, Brügger’s African connections have plied the entire village with alcohol, including the children.

QUEASY MORBID HUMOUR Clinking glasses with Mr Gilbert, Brügger pulls out a bottle of Möet & Chandon champagne, telling him it’s the last thing Hitler drank before he took his own life in the bunker. This The Ambassador Photo: Johan Stahl Winthereik prompts Brügger’s African assistant to tell a story of how Hitler had a pillow stuffed with the pubic hair of Jewish women. The Africans conclude that Hitler was full of funny stories. The ... a film about Africa stripped whole grotesque affair is a good example of the picture of Africa painted in The Ambassador. It’s queasy, morbid humour of NGOs, sarongs, Bono, child of the highest grade. soldiers and kids with bloated There are dozens of such moments. One of the best and bellies, a film about the kind most complex comes when Brügger takes a boat ride on a gorgeous river with two helplessly drunk Pygmies to the of people you never see in sound of Woody Guthrie’s This Land Is Your Land. Irony documentaries on Africa: The Ambassador Photo: Johan Stahl Winthereik doesn’t get much more biting than that. The Ambassador Photo: Johan Stahl Winthereik white businessmen and the This essay first aired on DR TV’s As he waits for the Liberian authorities to process his new FETISHISTIC BOYHOOD DREAM diplomats, the fat cats in the Going to Africa and playing a diplomat wouldn’t be a problem arts programme Filmland. title, Brügger travels to the Central African Republic on a fake But, is it okay for Brügger to travel in an African country as a diplomatic passport. “If Congo is Africa’s heart, the Central diplomat, while filming his experiences as a documentarian and urban centres, all the people for me. Diplomats aren’t always asking to see each other’s ID. For further information on The African Republic is the continent’s appendix,” he says. It is a a reporter? Is it okay that Brügger is clearly acting out an old, who are in Africa having a But instead of playacting, I figured I’d go all in. The role of the Ambassador, see reverse section. forgotten country that has suffered the vagaries of several fetishistic boyhood fantasy of strutting around darkest Africa diplomat is a lot like that of a journalist. They both have to mad presidents. According to the country’s chief of security, a in long riding boots, chomping on a cigarette holder? Of course great time. Frenchman, the Republic is still being cynically controlled by not. That’s precisely why The Ambassador hits home so hard. go see everybody, talk to everybody. They get access to state its former colonial overlord, France. This is no simple documentary. It scolds, it provokes, it secrets and a country’s most powerful people. Only, diplomats hurts and it asks questions that are a lot more complicated, DRUNKEN PYGMIES unpleasant and, not least, entertaining than any conventional can operate far beyond any ethical boundaries and still remain Under the cover story that he is looking to open a match factory, piece of journalism could ever make them. respected members of society. Brügger, aka Mr Cortzen, acts like a caricature of a white man The Ambassador is far from pure in its tone or in its heart, whooping it up in Africa. Without much effort, he hooks up with precisely because it knows the questions are so much more a mine owner, Monsieur Gilbert, who is up for some shady interesting when you step out of the norms. Balancing on business with Mr Cortzen. Since so much money is already umpteen moral precipices, the film is at times so grotesque that flowing under the table, the Liberian ambassador meets with you can barely believe your eyes. It’s way over the line. But the Quotes are from Per Juul Carlsen’s interview with very little resistance wherever he goes. crucial thing is that it crosses the line with an ingenuity that Mads Brügger, The Man with the Yellow Hat Gone It’s all thoroughly disillusioning. Meanwhile, Brügger’s any reporter must admire Bad, in FILM#72, available on dfi.dk/English. PAGE 8 / FILM#73 / THE AMBASSADOR / mads brügger’s method THE AMBASSADOR / IN PERSPECTIVE / FILM#73 / PAGE 9

influences and events around us. Rastapopoulos and the Man with the diplomatic titles available on a market “The people around me finish TWO ROLE- Yellow Hat from Curious George, basis to supplement the revenues of my story – they top my excesses. Brügger’s factional character plays on either corrupt officials and/or the When I say something ‘horrible’, PLAYS all the postcolonial clichés. Yet, the fact government itself. BRÜGGER’S they double it,” Brügger says. “I play that he supposedly holds diplomatic This “commercialisation of around with archetypes – the ‘black’ BRÜGGER status makes his project eerily real, sovereignty” can be seen in a range fantasy of a white man – and create thereby giving the audience a glimpse of different areas. Liberia, the country a phantasmagorical figure. I code my Style into the normally impenetrable world of from which Brügger obtained his persona down to the smallest details, in international diplomacy. papers, is incidentally also the world’s a near-semiotic orgy of meanings.” PERFORMATIVE Danes for Bush (2004) Brügger’s diplomatic papers allow largest shipping nation. Since the 1960s Indeed. The persona of Cortzen This satirical TV series follows two him certain freedoms and protection, Liberia has made a lucrative business is the product of countless cultural fake personas, Mads Cortzen and Jacob even in a country such as the Central of registering international ships references, everything from Tintin (Dr Boeschou, starry-eyed believers in the African Republic. Under the Vienna under Liberian flag so they can avoid Müller) to Curious George (The Man American way and staunch supporters Convention on Diplomatic Relations taxation, criminal prosecution and labor with the Yellow Hat), Graham Greene’s JOURNALISM The Honorary Consul and Herzog’s of President Bush, as they travel anyone with full diplomatic status enjoys requirements otherwise applicable in Echoes from a Sombre Empire. around America in a camper to get criminal immunity in the host country. the shipping company’s own country. As Brügger stresses, this painstaking out the vote for “Dubya”. Wearing red On top of that the Convention provides Similarly, commercial fishing coding of a character is crucial, even if blazers and wielding buttons, balloons that diplomats are allowed to carry a along the West African coast is today a lot of it doesn’t make it into the film. and bumper stickers, they try to ”diplomatic bag” intended for official use. dominated by European vessels since “I familiarised myself with the dos convince ordinary Americans to give In reality the “bag” is a flexible concept the EU has bought up national fishing and don’ts of diplomatic life. It gives Bush four more years. and may constitute anything from an quotas from these countries. A little me confidence to have the etiquette Worried that he might have made envelope to a shipping container, the key further south the small island state of down pat, like how to wrap a napkin it too easy for himself, posing as a point being that it cannot be searched Sao Tome is making profits by renting around a glass at a reception.” neoconservative in a democratic or seized by immigration officers or any out its phone lines to porn operators. Add to that, Moët et Chandon nation like the US, Brügger next came other law officials. And on the other side of Africa, champagne, Anne Demeulemeester up with the idea of going to North It is easy to see how diplomatic status Mauritius, inspired by places like boots, Dunhill Reds and a silver Korea. provides the perfect setup for smuggling Switzerland and the Cayman Islands, cigarette holder, not to mention a copy or other criminal activities. This is has become Africa’s leading tax haven. of The Phantom’s “Good Mark Ring”. hardly limited to Africa however. There The common theme to all these Plainly, Brügger, when he’s out of have been plenty of examples of serious schemes is that governments are willing character, likes to wear the “Bad Mark abuse of diplomatic status in Europe to sell or rent out what is otherwise Ring”, too. As Brügger says, the devil is and the United States, and in the City of considered an exclusive prerogative of in the details. London alone, for instance, embassies the state itself. Traditionally, this has owe more than £30 million in unpaid been considered either aberrations or Most of the quotes originate from a parking and congestion charge fines. a direct threat to states. Yet, the growth master class held by Mads Brügger at Yet a diplomatic passport does not of these practices suggests that states the National Film School of Denmark always equal a “get out of jail free”-card. are increasingly succumbing to global The Ambassador Photo: Johan Stahl Winthereik Danes for Bush Photo: DR TV Mads Johan Brügger Cortzen’s diplomatic passport in September. SN, AH Looking at a recent example the United market mechanisms. Rather than trying The Red Chapel (2009) States, who never signed the Vienna to control and constrain these forces, Undercover reporter, docu- of disguising myself as a fly on the wall, Mads Brügger travels to North Korea Convention but applies a national governments spend more and more mentarian, writer, TV personality MADS BRÜGGER neutrally observing, I dress up for the Born in 1972. Journalist, TV presenter, with a spastic actor and a comedian as statute, did not accept that the former time figuring out ways to play the and newly minted radio station part and interact as an agent provocateur. author and filmmaker. The author of several a small communist theatre troupe on a head of the International Monetary sovereignty game in such a way to manager. In his multifaceted With all the intentions of a journalist books, he has also written for magazines cultural exchange visit. In reality, it’s all Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, had attract international capital or avoid work, media trickster Mads to expose an overlooked part of the and newspapers, produced award-winning a pretext. Their true aim is to describe, diplomatic immunity when he was political and legal constraints. Brügger is unabashedly radio programmes and hosted the critically SOVEREIGNTY world, I went to CAR as a rich white acclaimed late night TV show The 11th Hour from within, how a dictatorship affects charged with raping a maid, since his Again, this is nothing unique to the pursuing a clear ambition: businessman with diplomatic credentials, as well as the daily news and discussion everything and everybody on a micro- visit to New York was not in an official developing world. From the privatisation challenging traditional pursuing all the perks that come with show Deadline. He is the creator of the cosmic level. The Red Chapel met with IMF capacity. Protection secondly of prisons and military services to the journalism and documentaries the title – reckless diamond hunting, satirical docu-series Danes for Bush (2004), both fascination and criticism when depends on the continued support offshoring of terrorist detention and the feature-length documentary The Red and revitalising the genres. power abuse, etc. – and became a Chapel and The Ambassador (2011). Starting it first aired on DR. Its blend of black from the country issuing the diplomatic immigration control both Europe and And it’s okay to have some fun respected member of their society. November 2011, he will be the station manager humour and mortal seriousness made FOR SALE papers. Immunity belongs to the country, the US are actively engaged in similar along the way, too! “Precisely because I’m beyond role- of radio24syv. the TV series a cult hit in Denmark, not the individual diplomat. practices of bartering off and outsourcing playing by actually being a diplomat, though some expressed concern that The Ambassador exposes when they pass me at the airport The notion that a diplomatic passport otherwise core sovereign functions. Mads Brügger has his own unmistakable I can forge a partnership with a very ZENTROPA REAL the North Koreans might be punished a particularly dark side of immigration line. The fascination with can be bought or sold just like anything Most of the time, these practices are style and methods. Over the last 15 sinister diamond-mine owner replete A production company founded by director now that the troupe had revealed its global capitalism, says Thomas the notion of diplomatic immunity else points to a key feature of Mads carried out far away from the public’s years he has repeatedly pushed the with gold tooth and machete scars on Lars von Trier. Its catalogue includes Katia real mission. The subsequent film Gammeltoft-Hansen who has is that it grants you the possibility to Brügger’s film and the world we live in eye. The rare thing about Brügger’s film Forbert Petersen’s Von Trier’s 100 Eyes envelope of what journalism can, and his forehead. That would be highly (2000), which explores Dancer in the Dark version won The World Cinema Docu- studied the game of diplomatic move outside the ordinary game rules. today. Companies brokering diplomatic is that it exposes a particularly dark side should, do. problematic for a journalist. But it’s no and von Trier and Jørgen Leth’s The Five mentary Competition at Sundance 2010. titles brokerage. Who doesn’t remember the South titles or, as is also the case, offering to of global capitalism where the line In his new film, The Ambassador, problem for a diplomat.” Obstructions (2003), a journey into the African diplomat in Lethal Weapon 2 take over diplomatic functions for small between public and private, business phenomenon of filmmaking that was selected Brügger takes his method a step further BY THOMAS GAMMELTOFT-HANSEN who indignantly invokes diplomatic countries unable to keep up embassies and government, is not only blurred for festivals worldwide and won numerous than the role-playing of his previous The Devil Is in the Details awards. Von Trier’s Dogumentary Code immunity telling Riggs and Murtaugh around the world, is just one example of but on occasion completely erased films Danes for Bush and The Red Constructing his characters, Brügger from 2002, the documentary equivalent of Diplomatic immunity. Along with that they cannot as much as give him a a much wider trend for states to basically Chapel. He is not playing a diplomat consciously and actively works with Dogme95, underlies six films by prominent becoming a world-famous chef this parking ticket, much less arrest him on sell off their sovereignty. The entire legal Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen is a in The Ambassador – he actually is other people’s expectations, drawing Scandinavian directors, notably Get a Life! was probably one of my most recurring charges of drug smuggling. framework builds on the presumption Research fellow at the Danish Institute (Michael Klint, 2004). The Ambassador is the Liberian diplomat Mads Brügger on both Jungian archetypes and recent produced by Peter Engel. (The Red Chapel childhood fantasies and, I am guessing, In The Ambassador, Mads Brügger that diplomats are the legitimate envoys for International Studies and co-author of Cortzen. Says Brügger. cognitive neuroscience, especially the from 2009 was produced by Peter Engel under of Mads Brügger too. As a grown-up walks a thin line between legal and of the sending state. Yet, the growing Sovereignty Games: Instrumentalizing “To show this Africa of the affluent, concept of mirror neurons that explores the parent company Zentropa Productions). I still thoroughly envy those who are illegal, reality and parody. Coming across market for diplomatic passports suggests State Sovereignty in Europe and I use ‘performative journalism’. Instead how brain cells copy or mirror able to flash their diplomatic passport as a mix between Tintin’s arch-nemesis that more and more states are making Beyond, Palgrave-MacMillan, 2008. The Red Chapel Photo: René Johannsen PAGE 10 / FILM#73 / PUTIN’S KISS / LISE BIRK PEDERSEN / IDFA FEATURE-LENGTH COMPETITION PUTIN’S KISS / LISE BIRK PEDERSEN / IDFA FEATURE-LENGTH COMPETITION / FILM#73 / PAGE 11 A KISS WITH A

Lise Birk Pedersen’s fascination with Russia Pgrew as sheRICE discovered another side to TAG the poverty-stricken reality that she already knew so well. Putin’s Kiss, selected for IDFA competition, portrays a generation of privileged youth in Putin’s Russia who believe in the future but are caught in their leader’s iron grip on the country. Masha in Putin’s Kiss Photo: Lars Skree

BY ANNA BRIDGWATER nothing can be allowed to challenge the regime,” the “When Nashi members throw film’s director, Lise Birk Pedersen, says. Putin’s Kiss opens with footage from a youth camp in Pedersen takes us to nouveau-riche Russia as well posters of their enemies on the Russia: thousands of smiling young people partying as to the drab universe left over from the Soviet ground and stomp on them, to in bright sunshine. The next scene is grainy CCTV days. We meet chic citizens with manicures and footage of a violent episode in a city at night: a group laptops, as well as pale, hunched-over young people me it bears a frightening of men kicking a figure lying crumpled on the transported like cattle to mass demonstrations. The resemblance to other fanatic ground. director consciously attempted to capture Russia’s A documentary about modern Russia under contradictions in her documentary’s aesthetics. youth organisations of the past.” President Vladimir Putin, Putin’s Kiss is full of “I try to take in everything I see. Then I try to contrasts: violence and happy young people, grey communicate my impressions to make the film research trip, where I focused on young people who concrete apartment blocks and glittering skyscrapers, visually mirror the narrative. My photographer, Lars were born 20 years ago, around the time the Soviet choreographed mass demonstrations and critical Skree, and I worked hard to show the contrasts that Union fell apart.” opposition voices. make up modern Russia.” One of the young people at the youth camp is Pedersen first became aware of Russia’s contrasts PUTIN, I LOVE YOU Masha, the documentary’s charming protagonist. The in 2008 while shooting the documentary Nastya’s Eastern Europe, and especially Russia, has always camp is organised by Putin’s youth movement Nashi, Heart. The film is about a troubled teenage girl in fascinated Pedersen. Her fascination only grew when and as we meet her in the opening sequence, Masha is a halfway house in Saint Petersburg, but while she she met the country’s privileged youth. one of the movement’s leaders. The storyteller in the was filming, the director encountered a completely “Meeting Masha and the organisation Nashi was film is the liberal journalist Oleg Kashin who becomes different side of Russia. a huge eye-opener. Nashi is very seductive. Their friends with Masha and who plays an increasingly “I had never seen so many expensive cars or headquarters were entirely done in red and white, crucial role as the story progresses. women in expensive clothes before. We went and their flag and logo were absolutely everywhere. to clubs and met young people living it up. I was Then Masha sat down in front of me and said, ‘Our Masha with her family in Putin’s Kiss Photo: Lars Skree RUSSIAN CONTRASTS surprised at how much energy the city contained. plan is to turn Russia into the global leader of the 21st “When Nashi members throw posters of their I saw that there was another side to the poverty- century.’” enemies on the ground and stomp on them, to me stricken Russia I knew, and I wanted to explore that The film owes its title to an episode at a youth Masha, a spokesperson for the political youth movement Nashi, it bears a frightening resemblance to other fanatic aspect of the country. meeting where Masha got up, went over to Putin and comes to doubt the true ideals of the movement. The film traces youth organisations of the past. Nashi is on the one “I was already making Nastya’s Heart, and I wanted kissed him on the cheek. hand represented by Masha’s smiling face, and on the to talk with other girls from the same generation “There is obviously a duality in the kiss. Was it a the seductive powers of Nashi and Masha’s growing unease. other hand is completely paranoid and has a goal that to show the huge divide in the country. So I took a good or bad thing for her? Masha got something out It all started with one bold kiss … PAGE 12 / FILM#73 / PUTIN’S KISS / LISE BIRK PEDERSEN / IDFA FEATURE-LENGTH COMPETITION PUTIN’S KISS / IN PERSPECTIVE / FILM#73 / PAGE 13

“There is obviously a duality in the kiss. Was it a good or bad thing for her? Masha got something out of it, but at the same time total loyalty is PUTIN’S YOUNG expected.”

This form of communication is deeply rooted in Russia. Criticism isn’t popular. There can only be one way forward, and that way is decided by Putin.”

AN EDUCATION ELITES AND Masha’s transformation from enthusiastic Putin- supporter to her seriously doubting Nashi’s methods forms the narrative backbone of Putin’s Kiss. “Masha meets a critical journalist, Oleg, and although he and Masha are very different, they Putin’s Kiss Photo: Lars Skree become friends and can discuss their differences. The film charts her education,” Pedersen says. THUGS “We see Masha at Nashi and as she faces a number Nashi sees itself as a young creative elite in of moral dilemmas. At one point, she is forced to turn the new Russia dominated by Putin. In the in some of her new liberal journalist friends to the opposition’s view, “Nashi is crippling the authorities, and she suddenly becomes aware that the organisation she is so deeply involved in has a morality of young people”. dark side. She is told that she has to choose between Nashi and her new friends. An impossible choice for kid on the stomach is abnormal and Russia’s enemies”. The organisation is Masha.” bizarre,” someone wrote in a heated fighting for Putin’s plan to rebuild the Masha is seduced by Putin’s power and by the online discussion. Others considered superpower. Nashi’s young lions vie material rewards for her work for Nashi. But the it an expression of “Putin’s enormous to be like Putin and get closest to the seduction has a downside, and rejecting the seducer love for his people”. As Putin himself Kremlin trough. is not a popular option. In the documentary, we explained it, he acted spontaneously As in the rest of Russian society, experience at close hand the extreme dangers and simply couldn’t help himself. paranoia is rampant in the youth you face criticising the regime, when one of the Like Masha, Nikita refuses to wash movement, which thunders against characters almost gets beaten to death. away Putin’s kiss. At the summer camp, Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution. Like In Putin’s Kiss, the roles of hero and villain are everyone talked about “the girl who the Kremlin, Nashi is concerned that Masha meets Vladimir Putin Photo: Polfoto/Ria NovostiI clearly defined, as Pedersen is well aware. “It’s hard kissed Putin”. inspiration from Ukraine will wash over to avoid portraying Nashi as the villain and the After losing an election to Nashi’s Russia. Though that never came to pass, opposition as the good guys. After all, I live in Putin’s Kiss offers a rare look mannered, articulate, ambitious young leadership to a candidate who puts the Nashi ramps up its rabid witch hunt Denmark, I believe in democracy, and that’s apparent at Nashi, the Russian youth Russians like 19-year-old Masha, the fight against Russia’s enemies at the against the opposition. in the film. So, although both sides speak their minds, movement that’s even more protagonist of Putin’s Kiss. A Nashi top of his programme, Masha begins While very few young people join I’m the one making the movie. No one can totally interesting to examine now commissar and spokesperson, Masha to doubt the movement she is in. opposition movements, Nashi boasts leave their background behind.” that its great icon, Vladimir is a middle-class girl from a Russian She meets people with other political around 70,000 members between the At the end of the day, Pedersen says, this is also Putin, is set to return as family that sporadically resides in outlooks, notably the journalist Oleg ages of 15 and 25. Nashi draws 30,000 what the film is about: “Russia is still marked by its president of Russia. the provinces, an altogether typical Kashin, at a TV debate. Although they youths to pro-regime demonstrations communist past. You don’t throw that away in a single family. Masha is attracted by the career disagree wildly, they become close in Moscow and to its summer camps. generation. That kind of transformation takes time” BY VIBEKE SPERLING opportunities that membership in friends. “Shitting in public is the essence Nashi opens up, an express elevator Masha’s friendship with Oleg causes of Nashi,” an opposition leader states For more information on Putin’s Kiss and Nastya’s Numerous commentators, inside to the heights of power. Joining the her no end of trouble at Nashi. All of after finding faeces on his car. But Heart, see reverse section. and outside of Russia, have described organisation at 16 and quickly rising a sudden, she is an enemy spy. She is Nashi is a hatchery for new leaders. Nashi as Putin’s “Hitler Youth”. Indeed, through the ranks, Masha became greeted with suspicion in Oleg’s circle, Many Russian commentators have elements of the movement act as storm the protégé of the minister of youth as well. When Oleg is attacked by been pining for a generational change LISE BIRK PEDERSEN Born 1974, Denmark. A graduate of the National Film School troopers, attacking “enemies of Russia”, and Putin awarded her a medal. It was “unknown assailants”, Masha realises in Russian politics. The Nashi troops of Denmark, 2003. Has made three films touching on Russian the opposition to Putin. during a visit by Putin to the Nashi she can’t keep leading a double life. marching into the regime’s top tiers, themes: her graduation film Margarita about a Russian teenager Nashi gangs bash opposition summer camp that Masha kissed him. Putin’s Kiss is the story of Russia’s after serving some time as toadies immigrating to Denmark, Nastya’s Heart about a transit home in members with clubs and baseball The otherwise reserved Putin politicised youth. Meanwhile, the vast and thugs for Putin, will usher in Saint Petersburg, and Putin’s Kiss about a new generation of bats. Other times, they defecate on obviously has a thing about kissing majority of young Russians stay away generational change without the Director Lise Birk Pedersen Photo: Per Morten Abrahamsen privileged youth, selected for IDFA competition. their cars. Nashi’s agenda is not just to himself. He once kissed a horse and from politics. Nashi sees itself as a generational change support the system Putin has created. a tiger on TV. But judging from the young creative elite in the new Russia MADE IN COPENHAGEN of it, but at the same time total loyalty is expected. It deliberate strategy in Nashi, where Putin is idolised Putin’s Kiss is produced by Helle Faber of Made in Copenhagen, The gangs on the organisation’s reactions, he crossed the line when dominated by Putin. In the opposition’s Vibeke Sperling is the Eastern was a kiss with a price attached,” Pedersen says. like a rock star. while Monday Production holds the rights. Helle Faber has extreme wing seek to terrorise the he pulled up the shirt of five-year-old view, “Nashi is crippling the morality European correspondent for the “Masha gets a good job at a television station. She “Students from the Moscow State University’s produced a number of noteworthy documentaries, including IDFA opposition into silence by using Nikita on the street and kissed him on of young people”. Danish daily Politiken. A former has a car and her own apartment, while most people school of journalism made a calendar to celebrate and Sundance winner Enemies of Happiness, Shanghai Space violence, and they are rarely put off by the belly. “It’s not about homophobia. While youth from the opposition Moscow correspondent for the national and The Dark Side of Chocolate. Find more on Helle Faber’s her age in Russia are still living with their parents.” Putin’s birthday. In it, scantily dressed girls say, latest productions Au Pair, The Samurai Case and Putin’s Kiss, police intervention. When a father does that to his son, it’s yell “Russia without Putin”, Nashi broadcaster DR. Author of books about The director is convinced that seduction is a ‘Putin, I love you’ and ‘Putin, you’re simply the best.’ in reverse section. www.madeincopenhagen.net Nonetheless, Nashi also counts well- sweet and fine. But kissing a random yells “Forward Russia” and “Fight conditions in Eastern Europe. PAGE 14 / FILM#73 / ballroom dancer / koefoed & bonke / IDFA first appearance competition ballroom dancer / koefoed & bonke / IDFA first appearance competition / FILM#73 / PAGE 15

both say the collaboration was seamless. Bonke graduated in directing from the National Film School of Denmark in 2005. Since then, he has made a string of documentaries on subjects ranging from teenage love to realtors. Koefoed, who graduated in 2009, is already a veteran at IDFA. He has taken no fewer than four films to the festival over the last three years and also served on the jury for the Student Competition. Ballroom Dancer is the first feature-length documentary DANCING for either. Though they both like to use direction in their documentaries, this production was very different. They had planned on helping the story along in various ways, for instance by asking Slavik and Anna to discuss certain subjects, but Slavik was so focused on himself and his dancing that that was never possible. “We started out writing scenes for a kind of script, imagining the coolest possible story, so we would be dressed to get the scenes we wanted. But we never got a single one of the scenes we made up. We never even got close to asking them to do anything for us,” Koefoed says. “However, the script gave us clarity about what kind of turning points we needed in order to let the story unfold.” Because they also chose not to do any interviews or other explanatory narrative elements, the two filmmakers had to work hard in the editing room to create understanding in the audience. WITH “We wanted the film to look like a fiction film. Everything should be told in scenes. We filmed it like a very pure documentary, but we cut it like a fiction film,” Koefoed says. Though they lacked the opportunity to apply direction, the two filmmakers had almost unlimited access to the two dancers’ lives. Ballroom Dancer. Framegrab “Slavik is a very generous protagonist. We had extreme DEMONS access to his life. We went with him everywhere and he only For two years, co-directors BY ANDERS BUDTZ-JØRGENSEN asked us to turn off the camera once or twice, even when he “It was a challenge to present Christian Bonke and and Anna were breaking up. We went along for the whole ride Andreas Koefoed tracked The spotlight outlines the silhouette of a man sitting on the as flies on the wall,” Bonke says. Slavik in a way that would make the former International Latin dance floor. Violins fill the room with a mournful Russian air. A audience identify with him, because World Champion Slavik young woman enters. The rhythm changes. The dance begins PAYS A HEAVY PRICE Kryklyvyy as he struggled and no emotion is too over the top. The show is on. The dance floor is the stage of the performance, but the real he is so tough and radical. Even so, to get back to the top. For When Christian Bonke and Andreas Koefoed were drama is played out in the relationship between front stage and there is something about him that the Ukrainian ballroom introduced to the strange world of ballroom dancing a couple back stage. Life off-stage is a far cry from the polished dance king, it’s a battle not just of years ago, they were filled with fascination and wonder at floor. most modern, ambitious men will against his rivals but also the abundance of sequins and shaved chests. The stage was set “Those forced smiles are a wonder to behold. For most of probably recognise.” against his own inner for a drama about winning gold as well as love. When they the film, Slavik and Anna are not getting along at all off stage, demons. Ballroom Dancer met the athletic, temperamental dancer Slavik Kryklyvyy, they but they still have to go on stage and act like they are madly in is competing at IDFA. knew they had a natural protagonist for their film. He simply love, faking it the whole way through,” Koefoed says. outshined everyone else. “The world of ballroom dancing is an amazing scene, where Cologne where he was doing solo training, because he had to “Slavik was discovered rather late, at age 19. Within a year the dancers are professional partners as well as lovers. It has tell someone about the heavy price he was paying for letting and a half, he was the best in the world. No one ever shot to drama and it is a very visual environment. The dance contests his love slip away,” Koefoed says the top so quickly before. He came out of left field and won add a natural dramatic effect to the film, but we deliberately the world championship,” Koefoed says. But Slavik’s reign was tried to ramp that down to avoid losing focus on the love For further information on Ballroom Dancer, see reverse section. brief and for the next 10 years, with changing dance partners, story,” Bonke says. he has tried, and failed, to get back on top. “It was essential to find a balance between the film’s two Ballroom Dancer follows Slavik in his all-out assault on the main elements, dance and love. Both elements had to be in ANDREAS KOEFOED Born 1979, Denmark. A graduate of the National Film School of Denmark, world championship. His partner this time, Anna Melnikova, is play. For Slavik, there was never a separation between dance 2009, and in sociology from Copenhagen University, 2004. His short films Directors Andreas Koefoed and Christian Bonke Photo: Erika Svensson also his girlfriend. But the trophies elude them and soon events and love,” Koefoed confirms. A Day in the Smoke (2008), 12 Notes Down (2008), Albert’s Winter are spinning out of control, both on and off the dance floor. “It was a challenge to present Slavik in a way that would (2009) and Pig Country (2010) have all been selected for IDFA, followed “He’s probably the most talented dancer in the world. He’s make the audience identify with him, because he is so tough this year by Ballroom Dancer, Koefoed’s first feature-length documentary and co-directed with Christian Bonke. Slavik, once the world’s number one Latin dancer, just not making the most of it, because his personal demons and radical. Even so, there is something about him that has teamed up with his new lover Anna to make and internal resistance are always tripping him up. And he is so most modern, ambitious men will probably recognise. High driven to win that he neglects his love for Anna,” Bonke says. achievers who sometimes forget the girl at their side,” Bonke CHRISTIAN BONKE one final attempt to regain his title. Following their Born 1973, Denmark. A graduate of the National Film School of Denmark, Little by little, he pushes Anna away with his constant says. 2005, and in multimedia design from Mouse, 1994. Films include Between struggle on and off stage, Ballroom Dancer offers hectoring and perfectionism in front of the dance studio As the filming progressed, Slavik grew increasingly lonely. Peaks (2004), First Love (2007), and Real Estate (2008). Ballroom Dancer mirror. Nothing is ever good enough for him. His world championship dreams were fading and Anna left is Bonke’s first feature-length documentary and co-directed with Andreas a rare glimpse into the glittering world of ballroom him for a wealthy Lithuanian. Koefoed. dancing. DIRECTION IMPOSSIBLE “His life fell apart and we were extremely close to DANISH DOCUMENTARY PRODUCTION Ballroom Dancer is the two directors’ first project together and everything. At the end, he called us up and asked us to come to See page 21. PAGE 16 / FILM#73 / THE WILL / CHRISTIAN SØNDERBY JEPSEN / IDFA reflecting images THE WILL / CHRISTIAN SØNDERBY JEPSEN / IDFA reflecting images / FILM#73 / PAGE 17

Henrik’s life is in a shambles. It’s been going that way for years. With no job, no money, a wife that left him, Henrik, although sardonic about it at times, is at his wits end. But now his granddad just died, and he stands to inherit a fortune. A film fuelled by a darkly shaded family story akin to Vinterberg’s The Celebration. THE

The Will Photo: Henrik Ernst Steffensen INHERITANCE Diving deep into the intimate life of its BY PER JUUL CARLSEN with breathless eyes and buzzed on “recovery beers”. protagonist, The Will is a documentary They are about to bury a family member whose death with all the energy and presence of a 41.76 seconds. That’s how long he takes to think about they have been looking forward to their whole lives. narrative film. We watch a guy have it, as he stares up at the ceiling of his kitchen in Copen­­ That sets the tone. For the next hour and a half, we sex, crash his car, be disowned by his hagen. Maybe Christian Sønderby Jepsen is rewinding follow Henrik as he struggles to get his hands on his father and much more. How far can a back to the weeks he spent filming in Skals, at the far jackpot, his “dream castle” that’s probably why he documentary go in terms of revealing the end of the country, in “marginal Denmark”. Maybe never really got a move on in life. He is unemployed most intimate details of someone’s life? he’s thinking about all the days he spent probing every and uneducated, his wife has left him and he is up to Per Juul Carlsen put the question to The recess of Henrik Steffensen’s private life, docu­menting his eyeballs in debt, just waiting out the clock until his Will’s director, Christian Sønderby Jepsen, every little piece of the puzzle, every burnt-out joint, big payday. who takes a long, hard think before every empty beer bottle, every text message. answering. Maybe he realises that he is dealing with one of STRAIGHT OUT OF A SOAP OPERA the most critical questions of the X Factor age, when “This is a really important story about unhappy everyone wants to be intimate in the media and the people on the margins of the nation,” Jepsen says. media wants to know every intimate detail. Maybe he “There are a lot of great themes: the rags-to-riches just doesn’t know how to answer the question, “Was dream, the human search for something greater and anything too private to include in your film?” the family conflicts that the inheritance catalyses.” Only a few minutes into The Will, it becomes ATTENDING A FUNERAL ON RECOVERY BEER apparent that Henrik’s family is like something It’s not a simple question. In The Will, Jepsen gets to live straight out of an American soap opera, regardless out his old dream of making a documentary of events of the thick Jutlandic burr. Passing a pile of chopped- as they unfold. The film follows Henrik, a young man down trees on his way to his father’s farm, he quips biding his time as he waits for an inheritance from that it reminds him of Isengard, the fortress of the his grandfather, who made millions running a seaside evil wizard Saruman in The Lord of the Rings. When hotel on the north coast of Germany. Ever since Henrik the farm appears on the horizon, he dryly states, and his older brother, Christian, were little, they have “There’s Fort Steffensen”. These comments reveal heard endless stories of the fortune they had coming three great qualities of The Will’s main character – his to them. Over time, the inheritance became a fairytale self-deprecating charm, his eye for dramaturgy and castle where they would live happily ever after. his willingness to reveal all, even the most intimate When The Will opens, Henrik and his brother are detail. The last quality, more than anything, is what speeding to their grandfather’s funeral in Henrik’s car, gives Jepsen pause to think. Henrik (driving) and his brother in The Will. Framegrab PAGE 18 / FILM#73 / THE WILL / CHRISTIAN SØNDERBY JEPSEN / IDFA reflecting images LOVE ADDICT / PERNILLE ROSE GRØNKJÆR / IDFA reflecting images / FILM#73 / PAGE 19

IN SEARCH of

Director Christian Sønderby Jepsen Photo: Per Morten Abrahamsen

“He told me he was ready to kill himself when we started the having explicit sex in Thailand and being disowned by his father? film. The film was a way for him to get it out. He’s a real “Henrik told me that one of the first things he did Love performer.” after meeting Ceci was show her the videos from Thailand. If he had shut himself up in a little bubble, his demons would just have kept growing,” Jepsen “There were no boundaries in our relationship,” he doesn’t know she’s listening in. The friction between says. “He told me he was ready to kill himself when says. “When he crashed his car and was bawling his Henrik and his brother not only adds fuel to an we started the film. The film was a way for him to get eyes out, I asked him, ‘Is it okay if I film you now.’ already inflamed family dynamic, it is also extremely it out. He’s a real performer. He used to dream about And he said, ‘Sure, go ahead, this is one of the most cringe worthy. Yet no one turns to Jepsen and asks becoming an actor. A lot of people with his kind of important moments in my life.’” him to turn off the camera. history do. They want to be seen and heard.” Back to the question Jepsen took so long to answer. DOC VERSION OF THE CELEBRATION DISOWNING YOUR SON BY TEXT Was anything too private to include in The Will? Henrik asked to be put on display. He responded to Equally cruel is the sequence where Henrik’s father “No. The ethics was: If it’s the truth to Henrik and a listing asking for good stories from the real world disowns him. A trained screenwriter might contrive everyone else, it’s going in the film,” Jepsen finally that Jepsen and his production company, Bombay a scene where the father barges in, crushing the last says. “I could have gone much further with Henrik, Bully, had posted on various websites, writing: remnants of his son’s self-worth in an argument that but I saw no reason to.” “I’m from a well-off family and my whole life ends with the son stabbing his father to death with a That’s worth thinking about for 41.76 seconds growing up was full of letdowns and scandal. Now kitchen knife. my grandfather is dying and I stand to inherit The Will presents a much more powerful For further information on The Will, see reverse section. millions. A new beginning?” solution: Henrik’s father sends him a lousy text message, Jepsen, who comes from that part of the country, informing him that he doesn’t want to see him flew to Skals on the Danish mainland of Jutland and anymore. Henrik holds his phone up to the camera, CHRISTIAN SØNDERBY JEPSEN found that the story was growing in intensity every half laughing, half crying, showing us the full text. Born 1977, Denmark. Graduated in TV-documentary at the National Film School of Denmark, 2007. Side by Side (2008), day. Faced with this unfolding family drama, he Disowning your son by text speaks volumes about a film about rivalry between neighbours, has screened at a host got the idea to make a documentary counterpart to the father’s mindset. Later on, Henrik shows us videos of venues, including the Toronto Hot Docs, and was honoured Thomas Vinterberg’s classic The Celebration. It’s hard from a Bildungs-trip to Thailand that the father took at film festivals in Indianapolis, Reykjavik and Leipzig. The Will (2011), selected for IDFA, is the director’s first feature-length to say anything other than he has reached his goal. his two boys on. In one video, a prostitute is sucking documentary. The Will is a documentary, but it has the engine of a Henrik’s fully erect member. In another, they are Jennifer in Love Addict Photo: Danish Documentary Production narrative film, thanks to its protagonist’s dramatic flair having intercourse on a sofa. It comes as no surprise and desire to disclose everything. when Henrik shows us photos of his parents’ wedding COPENHAGEN BOMBAY Founded 2006 by producer Sarita Christensen and director Love is a powerful feeling. To some, even destructive. Two scenes, in particular, have a dramatic construction and says that his mother married a “demon” who Anders Morgenthaler. Holds a specific focus on films for children that would get nods of respect in a narrative film. One drove her to fatal alcoholism. and young people and on crossmedia. Produced documentaries Pernille Rose Grønkjær travelled to America and met comes at a point when the audience assume that Henrik The Will is about to be unleashed in Danish by Michael Noer, Vesterbro (2007) and The Wild Hearts (2008). Jennifer, Eliza, Tracy, Christian and other love addicts. and his brother always stick together. Christian, a cinemas and at IDFA, the world’s most important First two feature films are the animated The Apple & The Worm (Anders Morgenthaler, 2009), and The Great Bear (Esben Toft In her film she tells their stories and explores the all- recovering drug addict, calls up and tells Henrik that documentary film festival. Is it healthy for someone Jacobsen, 2011). The Will (2011) by Chistian Sønderby Jepsen he “never cared much for Ceci”, Henrik’s wife. He to witness the world’s reactions to scenes of him is selected for IDFA. www.copenhagenbombay.com consuming nature of love when it has become a drug. PAGE 20 / FILM#73 / LOVE ADDICT / PERNILLE ROSE GRØNKJÆR / IDFA reflecting images LOVE ADDICT / PERNILLE ROSE GRØNKJÆR / IDFA reflecting images / FILM#73 / PAGE 21

After her success with BY EVA NOVRUP REDVALL that would either succeed or fail. Love Addict is more about The Monastery, it was a recognition.” challenge for Pernille Rose How do you move on after making a successful film like The She and Arentzen arrived at a solution where the film Grønkjær to start her next Monastery? Finding a new film was a challenge for Pernille would track the progress of a single love addict, or of her film. But a development Rose Grønkjær after she won the Joris Ivens Award at IDFA dependency, if you will, via encounters with many different grant from the Danish in 2006 and was launched on a year-long tour of festivals addicts. Film Institute allowed with her tale of old Mr Vig and his dream of converting a “Along the way, the film would uncover a variety of aspects her to work in depth with ramshackle Danish castle into a monastery. When she finally but viewed as a single process. Also, we wanted the audience her cinematic language touched back down in Danish reality, she started out by to identify with the story from the get-go. The thematics has to and explore aesthetic continuing The Monastery’s theme. grip you before the storylines intensify.” strategies from the world “I had found another old man and started filming. But the of fiction to create a moment I turned on the camera, I knew it was wrong for me. The Ethical Layer powerful story about a I had been there and was not curious. It felt like I was done with As they batted around themes and dramaturgy, they decided group of love addicts. the theme for now. Luckily, my producer could see it, too, and to locate the film’s core in the contemplations and insights that she helped me find a new direction,” Grønkjær says when we arise during the encounters with the people in the film. This

meet to discuss how she developed her new film, Love Addict. then led to questions of the best way to film people to make Tracy in Love Addict Photo: Danish Documentary Production Christian in Love Addict Photo: Danish Documentary Production Grønkjær is a founder of the production company Danish the environments contribute to the storytelling. Where would Documentary, with producer Sigrid Dyekjær and fellow they be discussing their experiences? Should they be filmed directors Eva Mulvad, Mikala Krogh and Phie Ambo. A huge separately or together? advantage of sharing a base is having colleagues who know These reflections also touched on the film’s ethical layer. “The development work allowed us to create a common you well and want you to grow as a director, Grønkjær adds. How do you film people who feel bad about their dependency? language before we started shooting. The talks take root, The ethical discussions introduced the idea of staging certain The Dramaturgical Layer scenes, which was put into play after Grønkjær met a young so you have a much better idea of what you’re looking for.” For starters, Grønkjær put away her camera and let curiosity recovered love addict with acting experience. This was the reign. The research phase initially was about different forms of motivation for adding a fictional layer to the film. The Visual Layer PERNILLE ROSE GRØNKJÆR dependency and gambling. Then she stumbled on an Arizona “Eliza is real and she draws on her own experiences. Her A development grant from the Danish Film Institute, which Born 1973, Denmark. Graduated in documentary direction from the National rehab centre that treated “love addiction” and she knew it was acting background made it possible to create an arc that made Grønkjær’s extensive research and structuring of the Film School of Denmark, 1997. Co-owner of Danish Documentary Production. a subject she couldn’t ignore. moved the story forward. Also, I wanted to include the stalker film possible, allowed her to involve other creative parties to Director of the Joris Ivens awardwinner The Monastery – Mr Vig and the Nun, a “I had never heard about the term ‘love addict’ before. element, but for moral reasons I didn’t want to be hiding in the strengthen the visual format. This, for instance, enabled them story about old headstrong Mr Vig and a Russian nun whose paths cross in their common endeavour to turn an ancient, worn-out castle into a monastery. Why does love for some people become a dependency? bushes with the camera. So, we could use Eliza’s experiences to to work in depth with the form of the interview situations and Love Addict is selected for IDFA 2011. And do they really need treatment for it? I started collecting create something that’s very close to reality, and that was really how they would blend reality and fiction. With her production information from different therapists. I wanted to find a exciting to work with.” designer, Niels Sejer, and her director of photography, Adam DANISH DOCUMENTARY PRODUCTION professional path into the material and avoid the tabloid angle Philp, she developed a book of the film’s visual strategies, Founded 2007 by Eva Mulvad, Pernille Rose Grønkjær, and Phie Ambo, initially of extreme cases.” exploring textures, colours and compositions for communicating as a distribution platform for the directors’ awardwinning films Enemies of Based on this extensive research, Grønkjær started “Eliza is real and she draws on moods like “loneliness,” “normality” and “madness”. Happiness, The Monastery and Mechainal Love. Were later joined by producer considering a possible structure for her film. She called in the For Grønkjær, it was a gift to have a production designer Sigrid Dyekjær and director Mikala Krogh. Eva Mulvad’s The Good Life, winner her own experiences. Her acting of the Best Documentary Award in Karlovy Vary, and Phie Ambo’s The Home dramaturgical consultant Jens Arentzen, who also contributed on a documentary and time for nuanced conversations about Front were both selected for competition at IDFA 2010, followed this year by to the script for The Monastery, and they discussed how to background made it possible to lighting with a skilled DP. Andreas Koefoed and Christian Bonke’s Ballroom Dancer (see page 14) and make a thematic film with a large cast of characters feel like a “The development work allowed us to create a common Pernille Rose Grønkjær’s Love Addict. www.danishdocumentary.com single story is being told. create an arc that moved the story language before you start shooting and have to react quickly. “The Monastery had the clear momentum of a project forward.” The talks take root, so you have a much better idea of what you’re looking for,” Grønkjær says. She was thrilled, for instance, to have had detailed conversations about what she calls the film’s fantasy layer, which includes a scene of a young girl in a forest looking for Prince Charming. “When you talk with love addicts, you notice all the references to childhood. I wanted to include that as a layer in the film, also to offset the harshness of reality. We had to be careful not to make it too banal, so it was important to really think it through.” Adding yet another visual layer to the film, Eliza’s storyline was inspired in part by the horror aesthetics of The Blair Witch Project. But the bulk of Love Addict is based on people’s day-to- day lives, and the filmmakers put a lot of energy into giving the interview sequences multiple layers as well. The frame for one interview, for example, a bench in Central Park, is redolent with the romance of Indian summer, even as the conversation is about a couple and the problems they are having. Other interview setups work with lighting to put a halo around words uttered in bulky American lounge furniture. Looking back, Grønkjær was delighted with the development process for Love Addict. The Monastery, which she shot herself over a period of years, was a lonely process, so engaging in more dialogue has been constructive. And, Grønkjær adds, the early conversations about the film have been important not least in relation to working with a subject that requires you to tread carefully Eliza in Love Addict Photo: Danish Documentary Production Director Pernille Rose Grønkjær. Photo: Ty Stange PAGE 22 / FILM#73 / the kid and the clown / ida grøn / IDFA reflecting images the kid and the clown / ida grøn / IDFA reflecting images / FILM#73 / PAGE 23

When Angus the hospital clown meets Tobias who is it came at the expense of the people in the film. That was her mantra for The Kid and the Clown. In ill with cancer, a powerful relationship builds between that regard, the form of the film was crucial. Loath them. Through Ida Grøn’s ever observant camera lens, to stick the “fly on the wall” label on her method, Grøn prefers to describe The Kid and the Clown as an we witness a world full of contrast as Angus helps Tobias observational film. take on the fight against the cancer. “The form was right at hand: an immediate, observant style that doesn’t call any particular attention to the camera or the images themselves. Focusing more on me or using a conceptual style and expressive visuals, where the film would have called a lot of attention to itself as a film, would have prevented the audience from participating to the same degree. It would have created a distance between the audience and the events,” she says. “I use visual clichés, like the shot of Tobias looking out a window, because that’s a language that’s easy for a broad audience to read, and I want the film to have broad reach. People have told me it’s like being there themselves, which is why it hurts.”

PARASITES ON REALITY Does she consider it almost ethically indefensible for the filmmaker to call too much attention to herself when dealing with such a vulnerable subject? “It’s sensitive, that’s for sure,” she says. “I usually experiment a lot. In my class at film school, I was probably the one who experimented the most. But perhaps that’s made me aware that there are times when it’s not fair to your protagonists, or your message, to cram them, or it, into a too-tight form.” The director thinks there’s a trend in today’s documentary film of the personal voice shouting way too loudly. Maybe the fact that she went to film school in England has something to do with it. There’s a British tradition of focusing more on socio-political subjects and looking out at society in general, rather than gazing down at your own navel. Grøn sees her documentary work as being ruled by a kind of idealism. “Years ago, I actually thought of becoming a hospital clown myself,” she says. “I figured if docu- mentaries didn’t pan out, I could be a clown. I was simply attracted to doing some good. I need to do Tobias and Angus in The Kid and the Clown Photo: Ida Grøn Director Ida Grøn Photo: Per Morten Abrahamsen some good.” Can documentary filmmaking cover that need? “Yes, though we are also these parasites on reality. Making The Kid and the Clown, Ida Grøn BY NANNA FRANK RASMUSSEN any conclusion about whether it came at his expense Danish hospitals. Though there is no scientific proof keeping himself contained,” Grøn says. To bring out But I am driven by a kind of idealism. I want to give was tiptoeing through an ethical minefield. a little bit,” Grøn says. Nonetheless, she has the that having clowns around increases the chances of a more vulnerable aspect of the clown, she left him something back to the world. That’s why it’s so In her documentary about a hospital clown “I felt so mean. I kept asking myself whether it wasn’t support of Tobias’ parents. She remains in touch with curing patients, there is no doubt in Grøn’s mind that alone in a room with a camera. Even then, she still important for me that the message always outshine and Tobias, a boy with cancer, the director actually cruel to keep filming Tobias when he was in them and they are convinced Tobias will appreciate they perform an invaluable service. The engagement, had to push him beyond his limits at times to get the filmmaker’s ego. You shouldn’t use your was determined not to reduce her prota- so much pain. Did the message justify my acts?” the film when he gets older. For now, he just likes and not least humour, with which a hospital clown workable footage. protagonists as brushes for painting your message. gonists to vehicles for conveying her own Shooting The Kid and the Clown raised a lot of being a movie star. meets a patient is priceless. “When everything else “I needed him to confront himself and his own You should be their mouthpiece” message. ethical questions for documentary filmmaker Ida When Tobias had a relapse after a year and a comes tumbling down, it’s important that some vulnerability. So I asked him specific questions and Grøn that she is still debating. As an added challenge, half of treatment, for long periods of time he was things remain fixed. The hospital clown provides that told him not to say anything for the first five minutes For further information on The Kid and the Clown, see she had nobody, apart from Angus, the hospital hovering between life and death. “I asked his parents stability,” Grøn says. The clown becomes an adult that the camera was rolling to really give him time to reverse section. clown of the film, to share her experiences with for several times if they wanted me to stop filming, but friend. All he wants with the child is to play and be feel himself. Then I left the room, leaving him alone the first five months of a process that went on for Tobias’ mother wanted the film to include those times silly and listen. That way, the clown helps maintain a with the camera, and stood outside the door feeling IDA GRØN Born 1979, Denmark. Holds a MA in documentary directing from the nearly two years. Setting out to film as vulnerable a when everything was going south,” Grøn says. “I semblance of normality amid all the chaos. incredibly cruel,” she smiles. National Film and Television School, UK, 2009, and a BA in Art History, story process as that of a child undergoing treatment for don’t think it would be respectful to them, either, or Angus the Clown’s real name is Ewan MacKinnon. Copenhagen, 2006. Has worked with various formats in documentary cancer, Grøn says, you have to ask yourself if what what they’re going through, if you don’t also show Originally from Scotland, he has been employed as OBSERVATIONAL FILM – poetic, experimental, observational, investigative. The Kid and the you’re doing is for the sake of the film or the people how incredibly hard it is. And I couldn’t just let the a clown in the children’s ward of Skejby Hospital, The line between right and wrong in the filming Clown (2011) is Ida Grøn’s first documentary since her graduation. in it. Scenes that give the audience goose bumps and film leave Tobias, as if I didn’t care now that he was Denmark’s second-largest hospital, since 2001. process is a theme Grøn keeps returning to in our knots in the stomach might traumatise the people doing so badly.” The Kid and the Clown includes a video diary of conversation. She mentions compassion, engagement FINAL CUT FOR REAL BEFORE Founded 2009 by producer Signe Byrge Sørensen and Anne portrayed. MacKinnon describing what it’s like to be so close to and respect as the over-arching feelings she was Köhncke, later joined by Monica Hellström. Among recent AN ADULT FRIEND “I’m pretty sure Tobias had no experience of me terminally ill children. Including those he has to say trying to portray and communicate. They also productions are Football is God by Ole Bendtzen, Returned by filming him in certain situations, because he was so The premise of the film was to tell a story about the goodbye to forever. provided a lifeline at her moments of greatest doubt. Marianne Hougen-Moraga, and The Kid and the Clown by Ida Grøn, EGO far gone in his pain. But I still think it’s hard to reach hospital clowns affiliated with the children’s wards of “I had to get Angus to open up. He’s so good at The message should take precedence. But not if selected for IDFA 2011. www.final-cut.dk PAGE 24 / FILM#73 / KAREN BLIXEN / MORTEN HENRIKSEN / IDFA reflecting images KAREN BLIXEN / MORTEN HENRIKSEN / IDFA reflecting images / FILM#73 / PAGE 25

Karen Blixen, a charismatic figure in Danish literary history, once Sick and pale, weighing in Sweden, he had written about “My mother didn’t want to hear about was ready to suffer and how much he Blixen’s work and she asked him up Karen Blixen and my father didn’t was willing to sacrifice in favour of formed a bizarre friendship with the young man of letters Aage just 35 kilos, she was to Rungstedlund. Deeply fascinated want to look like a madman in front what he was doing with Blixen” Henriksen. Now, many years later, Aage Henriksen’s son Morten wants a feeble and dying by the world-famous author, Aage of his friends. So it was probably less Henriksen went to see her and they threatening and less compromising A longer version of this article appeared some answers. Why was he, as a young boy, made a confidant in his old lady. But to Aage developed a close and confidential to tell these things to a child. His need in the Danish daily Information. For more father’s obsession to get behind Blixen’s mask? Henriksen, she looked relationship. One day, when they were and my curiosity came together.” information on Karen Blixen – Behind just like the wolf in sitting on the veranda, this confidence Were you ever angry that he confided Her Mask, see reverse section. took a turn for the unexpected. these things in you? grandma’s bed. “She looked at me and said, ‘I am “Not because of what he confided going to tell you something now in me. I did feel a kind of guilt of MORTEN HENRIKSEN Born 1950, Denmark. Graduated in literature at that you cannot tell a soul,’” Aage complicity, and I had no problem the University of Copenhagen and in direction towards her and she gripped his neck Henriksen recalls in the film. keeping mum. It was a bit like moving at the National Film School of Denmark, 1979. with her long, white fingers, digging She told him that she had become between different rooms. Of course, Made his first fiction feature with The Naked one finger so hard into his nape that a ill in Africa and after travelling to Paris I was carrying some thoughts that Trees (1991). Directed The Magnetist’s Fifth KAREN BLIXEN’S MARK Winter (1999) and the children’s short Hands burning pain shot down his spine and she was told that she was dying from weren’t my own. But I also used to ask Up! (1997). With a Right to Kill (2003) is co- Director Morten Henriksen his whole lower body cramped up. He syphilis. Blixen was whisked off to a my dad a lot of questions about these directed with Peter Øvig Knudsen. Henriksen’s was just 10 years old when wanted to say something, but she just hospital in Copenhagen and installed things.” documentary Karen Blixen – Behind her Mask (2011) is selected for IDFA 2011. his father first involved asked him to leave. in a ward for tropical diseases, so no There is a point in the film where him in his close personal one would know the true nature of her Aage Henriksen comes close to relationship with the world- DAMAGED FOR LIFE condition. There she lay, all alone and apologising to his son. Regret at NO EXIT PRODUCTION famous author Karen Blixen, “She dislocated a vertebra in my neck,” lonesome, she told Aage Henriksen. probably having drawn his son too far Founded 2009 by Morten Henriksen. Production company behind Karen Blixen – Behind her also known by her pen name Aage Henriksen says more than 50 Then one day it was like the air in the into his relationship with the famous Mask, directed by Morten Henriksen and Isak Dinesen. Karen Blixen years later in Karen Blixen – Behind Her room thickened and she realized that writer and at the inappropriateness of produced by Karen Baumbach. – Behind Her Mask is a dark, Mask, “and no chiropractor has been she wasn’t alone. The Devil was with letting a child carry such secrets alone.

auto-therapeutic interview able to put it back since.” her, she asserted, and ever since the But Henriksen was never looking for New films on KAREN BLIXEN with the director’s father, Blixen’s mark begat chronic Devil has been her best friend. an apology. Two features about Baroness Karen Blixen Aage Henriksen, a literature migraine attacks for Aage Henriksen The Devil took away her sex life, “I think it was good to get all of (1845-1962), also known by her pen name professor who suffered from that were a huge strain on the whole but he gave her the ability to transform this sorted out, and it has certainly Isak Dinesen, are in the pipeline. Bille August is in production with Tanne about Blixen’s early years life-long migraines after Blixen family, Morten Henriksen says today. her life and her experiences into demystified a few things for me. I now in Kenya 1914-31. Producer is Regner Grasten put her “mark” on him. For five years he has been working on stories. She had made a pact, she said. understand that it was all about him Film, expected release late 2012. Nimbus Film this documentary about his father’s and Blixen, not me.” is putting the final pieces in place for an inter- national co-production tracing the dramatic BY LASSE LAVRSEN relationship to Blixen. THE CHOSEN ONE Do you understand him? friendship between poet and author Thorkild “It disabled him. He would be in “He who is told something for the “It’s hard to say. I was probably Bjørnvig and Blixen. Expected release early 2013. Aage Henriksen had long since terrible pain for weeks and his head first time that he can’t tell anyone else surprised at the radical decisions he dropped out of touch with the much would be nodding like a bobble-head feels chosen,” Aage Henriksen says in made. He tells me several times over older Danish writer Karen Blixen, doll,” Henriksen says. the film. As he was drawn deeper and that he can never go back. Still, I’m when she called him up one Sunday “My mother never forgave Blixen deeper into Blixen’s occult universe, he surprised at the size of the losses he afternoon in 1958. For more than for her relationship with my father. too became increasingly obsessed with five years, he, like a number of other But I, who had become a part of it and spirituality and magic. “My mother never forgave Blixen for her male Danish literati of his generation, wanted to understand, had to forgive He experienced supernatural had enjoyed a close, almost spiritual, her. That’s why it was so important for phenomena, sought out spiritual relationship with my father. But I, who had relationship with the Danish author, me to make this film. To understand milieus and cultivated mythic figures become a part of it and wanted to understand, who was 35 years his senior. my father and free myself from him.” and Eastern mysticism. As Blixen Ultimately, she had become so The film is a dark, auto-therapeutic confided in Aage Henriksen, so he had to forgive her. That’s why it was so demanding and manipulative that he interview with Aage Henriksen who confided to his son the secrets Blixen important for me to make this film.” cut all ties to her. But now she was on tries to describe his deep personal had told him. On long walks, he would her deathbed, she told him, and if he relationship with the famous writer. talk to the boy about devil worship, wanted to see her one last time, this How she came to mean so much to moon dancing, faces aglow with was it. him and why he made his 10-year-old infinite light, sexual powers and the Arriving at Rungstedlund, he son his sole confidante. strange clarity of vision he had gained found her laid up in bed. Sick and “It’s only now, when the film by practicing yoga and opening up pale, weighing just 35 kilos, she was a is finished and I have finally had a the so-called kundalini force at the feeble and dying old lady. But to Aage chance to question all the seams in the bottom of the spine. All with emphatic Henriksen, she looked just like the story,” Henriksen says. “It was hugely admonitions not to tell anyone. wolf in grandma’s bed. Her face had a liberating for me to be able to map this The stories Henriksen is probing in scarlet glow and a bright spot of light thing out, examining my dad at arm’s his film now have lain untouched since was flickering within the field. That’s length. I can hold up their relationship he was a child. how Aage Henriksen saw it. as a story now and that has demystified He sat on her bed and they talked in a lot of my memories. Also, I felt that THE GUILT OF COMPLICITY their old way about literature and her I had some rights to this story, even if As a child, Henriksen likewise thought worlds, but within a few hours an odd my father doesn’t agree at all.” of himself as his father’s chosen one. silence crept up on them. They sat like Their relationship was special and it that for a while, staring at each other, A PACT WITH THE DEVIL was he, not anyone else, who got to then Blixen broke the silence with Blixen first sent for Aage Henriksen hear the stories about Blixen. Making a “Come on!”. Not knowing exactly in the early 1950s. A young associate the film has given him a more sober what was going to happen, he leaned professor of literature at Lund University image of his relationship to his father. Aage Henriksen and Karen Blixen Photo: Sune Magyar Director Morten Henriksen Photo: Per Morten Abrahamsen PAGE 26 / FILM#73 / FOUR PROJECTS AT IDFA FORUM FOUR PROJECTS AT IDFA FORUM / FILM#73 / PAGE 27

With the same sense of wonder The Expedition is an expedition film, but It’s hard to fathom, but not entirely concern being to dissuade them that drove explorers of the past to also a road movie where the journey so for the United Nations Office from developing a taste for human discover new continents, a team of itself is the narrative motor. Also, the for Outer Space Affairs who are flesh? How do we communicate with scientists and artists raised anchor mythology of the voyage is central, responsible for devising a plan in them? Can we crack a joke or two and this summer to head for Northeast visualised by sails stretched by the the event that the unfathomable build friendships? Arriving from far Greenland to see our planet at its wind and torn by storms, clear waters should occur: that one day we would they must be able to teach us about purest. One of the last unexplored mirroring the moon, speed contrasted be called upon by intelligent life spacecraft engineering? Last but not places on Earth these icy inlets have by slowness. However, this is a journey from outer space. This setup proved least, what about all the questions we been buried under permafrost since not only in the realm of physics. The to be too intriguing to ignore for possibly cannot imagine? the Ice Age. Now traces of life’s vast nature reserve is a metaphor for filmmaker Michael Madsen who With more than a touch of beginning have become accessible to the recesses of the mind, and so the thrives on philosophical brain-teasers humour, Madsen’s investigation into Man because of the melting Arctic — journey is also a voyage of discovery that stretch our imagination and our possible reactions and precautions the same process that many believe towards the unknown territories of understanding to the limits. linked to an alien visit acts as a kind of will end life on Earth as we know it. our understanding, in the film reflected With his next project, The x-ray on our society: What do these Joining the expedition was a trio of through abstract images such as Visit, Michael Madsen once again reactions say about us, our fears, our filmmakers, Janus Metz, Daniel Dencik mysterious footage from underwater attempts to make the essentially longings, our beliefs? and Michael Haslund-Christensen, in cameras. incomprehensible comprehensible. To fully transmit a sense of charge of a film crew documenting The filmmakers are inspired by He and his crew will be working in the strangeness in this encounter, the journey. The Expedition to the End classical apocalyptic fiction film that collaboration with the UN Office in Madsen is devising an imagery that of the World follows the artists and mix seriousness with humour to Vienna to bring us closer to a possible reflects that we are being observed The Arctic schooner of The Expedition to the End of the World Photo: Simon Rubaudo scientists onboard collaborating in portray the demise of civilisation. One of several recurring hatches in the UN Office in Vienna. From The Visit Photo: Magic Hour Films scenario which would unfold in by something or somebody that is their attempt to measure, understand, Calling their documentary a “tragi- case of an alien visit. In a sense, the entirely other-worldly. For instance, explain and ask new questions about comedy”, they draw on the absurd film will serve as a kind of full-scale Madsen’s wants to suggest that we are the natural world. contrast between microscopic human emergency plan putting the Office’s looked upon by intelligent creatures But the film does not so much behaviour and monumental nature. knowledge and speculations into that see in multiple perspectives and focus on the facts and measurements The trio is an experienced team. real-life perspective. perceive time in multiple dimensions. gathered by the experts as on how Director Daniel Dencik is best Madsen intends to look at such an Visually speaking, The Visit acts as a APOCALYPSE we as human beings respond to known for his editing work on encounter on a very practical level, mirror in which the audience sees nature and on our relationship to its awardwinning films such as The Five starting from the very first phone call itself through the eyes of an extra- vast and inexplicable beauty. Here Obstructions and Into Eternity, while to the Office of Outer Space Affairs terrestrial entity. lie the important truths as to who we Janus Metz is director of several KNOCK that “something” has landed. What The film, which is in an early are and how we understand our life feature documentaries, including his would be the next step in a drill for development stage, continues the on Earth. international breakthrough Armadillo an unexpected visit from far away collaboration between Madsen and Amid the sublime scenery of the about Danish troops in Afghanistan. galaxies? his creative team from Into Eternity Arctic where ice is king, the story Michael Haslund-Christensen has The Visit introduces experts and with Lise Lense-Møller as producer, takes a privileged look at Homo previously ventured into arctic scientists such as astro-biologists, Heikki Färm as cinematographer and Sapiens, simultaneously part of territory with The Track (1988) and space-psychologists, military experts, Stefan Sundlöf on editing. and alienated from nature that we The Prize of the Pole (2006). semiologists, theologists, and even In the summer of 2011 a group of artists and scientists travelling constantly try to control. Creating a K“A cosmic documentaryNO comedy” is theCK tagline for Michael chefs with a scientific approach to Read interview with Madsen page 4. NORonboard the good ship Activ ventured intoT the fjord systemH in kind of “Apocalypse North”, the film is Read interview with Janus Metz page 3. Madsen’s next big film project The Visit which takes a close look cooking, to uncover the human Northeast Greenland to explore one of the last virgin territories a journey into the “heart of lightness”, at how we humans would react if – or when – we are approached interests at stake, such as: on Earth. On the passenger list was a film crew led by directors as one of the expedition members THE EXPEDITION TO THE END OF THE by intelligent life from outer space. According to the United What kind of architecture would THE VISIT Janus Metz and Daniel Dencik and producer Michael Haslund- is reported to have said: where WORLD / IDFA Forum – Round Table Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs the very first step in an be suitable to house the aliens? Do IDFA Forum – Round Table Directors Janus Metz, Daniel Dencik Director Michael Madsen Christensen who chronicle the voyage in their new filmThe enlightenment and ice might just be Producer Michael Haslund-Christensen for alien emergency plan would be, quite simply, a phone call: aliens have human rights? What Producer Lise Lense-Møller for Magic Hour Expedition to the End of the World. the greatest challenges on Earth. Haslund Film / www.ekspeditionen2011.dk “They have arrived.” should we feed them, our main Films / www.magichourfilms.dk

understands a good bit of Farsi. In same time, Madsen sees much more Africa. Now, as director Katrine Kjær Kjær wishes to demonstrate that Break of Dawn, Madsen tells the story in Sepideh than just another teenager. shows in her documentary Mercy part of the adoption industry puts AIMING FOR of 16-year-old Sepideh who wants to Her stargazing represents the conflicts WIN-WIN Mercy, children are increasingly being commercial interests above human become an astronaut. But that is easier between the Iranian traditions and treated as a commodity. needs and that innocent children said than done for the young girl who young Iranians’ desire to determine Ethiopia has five million orphans are victims of an absurd supply and THE STARS is tied by family traditions and cultural their own lifestyles, and Sepideh’s ADOPTIONS? and holds the world record in demand system. codes according to which nightly story shows proof that it takes adoptions. Yet the demand for infants Inspired by tales of globalisation Is it possible for an Iranian girl stargazing is far from being considered enormous courage to confront a For many Western childless in the West has surpassed the number such as Iñárritu’s Babel, Mercy Mercy to become an astronaut? In an appropriate occupation for a young conservative society. parents adoption is a win-win of children suitable for adoption. A also draws on the epic style of Fridthjof Break of Dawn, Berit Madsen girl. Sepideh’s mother is concerned The production is managed by situation. Unfortunate orphans great deal of the adopted children in Film’s highly successful Armadillo follows 16-year-old Sepideh’s that the desert excursions may shame Stefan Frost and Henrik Underbjerg are provided with parents and Ethiopia are not orphans, but already which had Sara Stockmann as producer. struggle to break away from the family, and Sepideh’s uncle, head who had their long documentary How the childless are blessed with have parents who could support their Katrine Kjær has worked as a traditions in order to pursue of the family, opposes her insistence Are You, about artist duo Elmgreen & children. But behind the dream children for a fragment of the cost of director and producer of documentary, her dreams. on spending the nights under the open Dragset, selected for a host of festivals. lies anoher reality. In Mercy the adoption. primarily for primetime TV, since 1999. sky. But Sepideh has promised her dead Mercy, Katrine Kjær shows Mercy Mercy tells the true story It is not easy to make films in father to follow her dream. the flip side of international of an adoption between an African Iran these days, but director Berit With Break of Dawn, Berit Madsen BREAK OF DAWN adoption. and Western family, seen from both MERCY MERCY IDFA Forum – Central Pitch Madsen has unique access. She is wants to tell a universal story of a IDFA Forum – Central Pitch sides. We follow the families for more Director Berit Madsen Director Katrine Kjær married to an Iranian, which makes young girl at the crossroads between Producers Stefan Frost and Henrik Underbjerg It seemed a perfect match, until than three years as the adoption goes Producers Miriam Nørgaard, Jesper Jack, Sara her an Iranian citizen, and she also childhood and adulthood. At the for Radiator Film / www.radiatorfilm.com adoption became big business in wrong. Stockmann for Fridthjof Film / www.f-film.com Break of Dawn Photo: M. Reza Mercy Mercy Photo: Henrik Bohn Ipsen PAGE 28 / FILM#73 / HYBRID FILMS / VIEWING A TREND HYBRID FILMS / VIEWING A TREND / FILM#73 / PAGE 29

cinematic grammar and storytelling and ensure that While indicating that hybrid films have always filmmakers continually strive to push the boundaries existed, Høgel sees a number of reasons why the THREE HYBRID FILMS and create new experiences for the audience. That form is so prevalent today. FROM NEW DANISH leaves everything wide open and, indeed, NDS “Doc and fiction are getting closer: in budgets, in has supported a long line of genre-busting filmic distribution, in the people working on the films. We SCREEN experiments The Ambassador is just the most recent have had a period of broadcast monopolies, where example. investigative documentaries were a core value. Now Høgel, who has a degree in anthropology, reaches that’s giving way to broader distribution, and broad- back in history to the story of Sambo to analyse the casters see a market potential in hybrids. Audiences R origin of the hybrid phenomenon. under 35 don’t care whether they are watching Directors Michael Noer, Tobias Lindholm “Hybrid means mixing and is most powerfully documentary or fiction: they just want a cool Noer and Lindholm’s feature debut is a gritty rendering of life used about the mixing of races. An example of a experience – that is enlightening and entertaining.” HYBRID behind bars for R, a young inmate faced with the challenge of racial hybrid is Sambo, which before the time of the navigating through prison culture with its hidden agendas and children’s book The Story of Little Black Sambo meant CONTRACTS WITH THE AUDIENCE hard-hitting notions of honour and retribution. a mix of black and Indian blood. For a long time, Jakob Høgel sees four categories of hybrid film. His Sambos were considered a dangerous experiment focus is on what a film does to an audience: What with nature and something to be avoided. Later, the expectations does an audience bring to the film? image reversed entirely and Sambos were seen as a What sense of a contract does the audience establish possible solution, because Blacks were ‘strong but lazy in the film? And, how can the audience work with and difficult to discipline’, while Indians were ‘small what they experience in the film? and relatively weak but self-organising’”. “So the very idea of mixing often carries strong 1. This is real – not! moral undertones, at first negative, later positive,” “Documentaries that you watch thinking they are = MIXING Høgel says. real until you realise that it’s all a setup. Though the There is currently a strong trend of mixing audience’s experience is ‘documentary’, it is crafted the methods and vocabulary of fiction and FLAHERTY AND GRIERSON MADE HYBRIDS as fiction. Some of the first mockumentaries were Photo: Magnus Nordenhof Jønck documentary films. The Nordic Film & TV While the hybrid trend has given way to a joy of outright hoaxes. More recently, the picture has Fund recently invited the commissioning mixing in the arthouse community, Høgel sees become more blurry – witness Exit through the Gift editors of the Nordic film institutes to a concern and scepticism in the world of film about Shop or I’m Still Here, where the uncertainty about seminar in Copenhagen on hybrid film. mixing and creating “impure” breeds. what is real was part of the advance buzz.” The ambassador Jakob Høgel, artistic director of New “Documentarians have for a long time expressed Director Mads Brügger Danish Screen, spoke on his view of the fear and a sense of loss regarding fictional elements 2. I know that parts are made up (but they have Journalist-cum-diplomat Mads Brügger puts himself at the center trend, emphasising that hybrid films act as and attitudes creeping into documentaries. The sense an effect on what I see as real) of a veritable Chinese box structure of narratives involving a a necessary, living laboratory for what films has been that documentaries are losing their grip on “The audience doesn’t care about authenticity as match factory, a diamond hunt and the carefree life of a white can be and should be. reality. Journalistic documentarians have tried to set long as the film is funny, embarrassing or exciting. diplomat in an Africa of the 1970s. up rules about what is allowed and what is not in Examples of this category include Borat and now By Susanna Neimann order to maintain an idea of pure documentation. In The Ambassador, where the protagonist acts a kind fiction, the reluctance has been another: documentary of catalyst. Like ‘agent provocateurs’, they expose and Hybrid films often raise ethical questions: Did the elements have been considered low-grade, cheap influence reality. The filmmakers perform an artistic filmmakers go too far in manipulating their pollution of artistic fiction.” intervention in reality.” unsuspecting characters and duping their gullible But, says Høgel, the moral scruples about mixing audiences? rest on the myth that before there were two separate 3. This could be real – authentic fiction Hybrid films also challenge the institutions that things, docs and fiction, and now they are all mixed up. “These films use devices that connote authenticity support and distribute film productions. Which “This is just a myth. Fiction and docs have always and often refer to a doc style, e.g., by using non- fund should pay, when one box says “Fiction” and related to each other, from the very earliest films on. actors, real locations and imitating documentary the other says “Documentary”? Can a documentary In fact, it is only by having a dialogue that we have camera work. A recent Danish example is the prison film festival like CPH:DOX reasonably give its best been able to define one thing as doc and another as film R by Michael Noer and Tobias Lindholm, which Photo: Johan Stahl Winthereik documentary award, as was the case in 2010, to a fiction.” was based on a real story, shot in a former prison film like the Italian Le Quatro Volte which clearly is In that sense there is no before hybridity, Høgels and had a cast, apart from the main character, of real “mostly” fiction? argues, stating that the very films that we now use inmates and guards.” Karolina Lidin, documentary consultant at to define the documentary genre – such as the films out of love Nordic Film & TV Fund, opened the seminar in of Flaherty and Grierson – would by our standards 4. What is real? Director Birgitte Stærmose Copenhagen by paraphrasing Karl Ove Knausgaard, be called hybrid. In other words, the very definitions “The films in the fourth category discuss authenticity Portraying the lives of children trying to survive the aftermath the Norwegian author of an intimately confessional of the categories only make sense because there has in the actual fabric of the film, often in every single of war in Kosovo, the film is based on interviews that were later six-volume work that is categorised as fiction: been a battle between the two. scene. An example is Birgitte Stærmose’s Out of Love, rewritten as monologues by a screenwriter and then performed in “How much fiction does it take to depict reality “Most films are made either as documentary or as where children from post-war Kosovo tell poignant front of the camera by other children in new settings. truthfully?” fiction, but it is the films in between that have made stories about loss and hope in staged situations. it possible to reach some agreement about what Both Out of Love and The Ambassador have been STARTING WITH SAMBO documentaries and fiction respectively are. criticised for their handling of reality. Indeed, there The point of bringing together the Nordic film Documentary films have always been interested in has to be a very good reason for choosing a method commissioners was, in part, to discuss how film staging reality, and fiction films have always been that intervenes in reality and may have an effect on organisations can openly embrace and accommodate obsessed with authenticity. My contention is that the people in the film. If you choose to employ a the different genres and innovations. hybrid film is not a new thing, and it doesn’t make radical device, as many hybrid films do, there has to As artistic director of the talent fund New Danish sense to view it as a separate category or genre. Only be a point. You should give the audience new insight Screen, Jakob Høgel is in the privileged position that by looking at specific films, and why they are made and experiences” his fund’s statement of purpose directly says that the way they are, does the term become meaningful,” NDS should support and inspire the development of Høgel says. Jakob Høgel, artistic director of New Danish Screen Photo: DFI Framegrab PAGE 30 / FILM#73 / one to watch / ANDREAS JOHNSEN / Christoffer Dreyer TURNING / CHARLES ATLAS AND ÅSA MOSSBERG / FILM#73 / PAGE 31

New names, new stories, new angles. The documentary scene is budding with young talent. Meet two Danish directors to watch out for. THE DIVERSITY OF BEAUTY he finds his stories on location and films as he times very hard lives and say how much it has meant researches. This method has produced a story about to them to be in the performance. “Turning represent Nicaragua’s abortion law, Murder, and another about freedom, from society and from gender. I feel worthy, a Danish reggae singer’s breakthrough in Jamaica, being a woman, an artist, a transsexual. Being OK!” as CURIOSITY Natasja. The director’s latest film, A Kind of Paradise, one performer puts it. is a collective portrait of artists, musicians, poets and The film’s editor is Åsa Mossberg. She was other creative firebrands in eight African nations. introduced to Atlas by the Danish producer Vibeke “We are fed a negative media image and we tend Vogel, of Bullitt Film, who has worked with them to look down on Africans. I want to show that Africa both before. Judging from the current mood in the IS THE is full of possibilties,” Johnsen says. editing suite, their meeting was a happy one. Working The film includes a look at the Ivorian rap group on the film, Atlas and Antony had reached the point Coupé Decalé which, Johnsen says, neither sings where something had to happen. very well nor has the right instruments. But they “They needed a frame and a good editor to finish dRIVER love performing and they will sing, so they pull it off. the film,” Vogel says. “I thought maybe it could work. “That’s how I work. If I want to make a film, I just do it.” Åsa has a great talent for music and a God-given talent With an open mind and a camera under The director’s best known film to date, 2009’s for emotion – that’s an important gift.” his arm, the self-taught, adventure-loving Murder, is the story of at-risk women suffering under So, Mossberg went to New York to meet Atlas and

Photo: Timme Hovind filmmaker Andreas Johnsen documents Nicaragua’s strict ban on abortion. That subject Antony. “I remember you had an orange T-shirt with human lives around the globe. notwithstanding, Johnsen does not consider himself a big question mark on it!” Mossberg says. “We were to be a political filmmaker. talking. I told you where I come from in filmmaking, “It’s all about people.” Nicaragua, Brazil, Jamaica, Ivory Coasty and Nigeria “It’s all about people. I try to get a feeling of what my journey, what I liked when I was a kid. I tried to are just a handful of the countries Andreas Johnsen it’s like to be a woman in Nicaragua. I don’t take a be as open as I could be …” has visited with his camera. The 37-year-old director political position, and I’m not out to judge anyone.” Atlas’s answer to that question mark was always loves to travel. Filmmaking for him is about the fun of By Freja Dam yes. “When Åsa came, she just started talking and I it, the driving force his curiosity about other cultures knew I could work with her. She’s my kind of person. and his wish to “see everything”. Films Åsa is very familiar with my kind of ideas. Antony Most of all he likes to go somewhere alone A Kind of Paradise (2011), Murder (2009), Natasja (2008), Man and I had worked and come to an impasse, basically. Ooman (2008), Good Copy Bad Copy (2007), Curtain Raising One of the turning beauties in Charles Atlas’ visual interpretation. Framegrab without preconceived notions. Talking with people (2006), Inside Outside (2005), Mr Catra The Faithful (2004), I could have worked with Åsa on any film, but on he meets in the street or knows from past trips, Stocktown (doc series, 2003). See more at rosforth.com. this one in particular we needed someone who could also take care of Antony’s concerns, and Åsa was that person. It’s a miracle that we’re all happy now, really of a small town in grotesque and conspiratorial shades. a miracle. I told Vibeke, if she could produce this Dreyer plays the lead in his own film, travelling film, she gets a PhD in producing, because it’s really to Denmark’s southernmost town to open a detective advanced,” he laughs. SN agency. The project soon reveals previously un- warped known connections and unravels complex conspiracy For further information on Turning, see reverse section. theories. In kind of a Danish version of Twin Peaks, Dreyer finds something rotten wherever he looks. CHARLES ATLAS “My thesis was: dig deep enough and you’ll find New York based video artist and filmmaker known for his long- drama hiding everywhere. But of course the film term collaboration with choreographer Merce Cunningham. Has conspi- continued his passion for working with amazing performers. Films dramatises and exaggerates how thrilling things get include works with Michael Clark, Douglas Dunn, Leigh Bowery, in a place like that,” says Dreyer who took on the role Marina Abramovic and Antony. Has made several installations and of detective to spoof his own craving for sensation. exhibited work at the New Museum, New York, and Tate Gallery, “Detective is a funnier word for a wacky journalist London, and many other places worldwide. Has collaborated with Vibeke Vogel on several productions such as Super Honey (1994), who blows every little story out of proportion. Of ration The Legend of Leigh Bowery (2002) and now Turning (2011). course I’m playing a role, but the character is rooted Parochial fiction meets new journalism in my personality. I, too, have a tendency to make a in self-taught director Christoffer Dreyer’s ÅSA MOSSBERG story seem more exciting than it is.” Åsa Mossberg has edited more than 40 features and documen- Photo: Anders Gustafsson blend of film noir, thriller, comedy and The director isn’t out to make fun of the town or Editor Åsa Mossberg and director Charles Atlas Photo: Bo Tengberg taries. Earlier this year she received a Swedish Guldbagga Award documentary reportage in his second its people, he stresses. “I hope I’m the one who looks for her editing of Pernilla August’s Best Film winner Svinalängorna. film, The Detective. like a fool in this story,” he says. Your dignity. Your beauty. Think about those Turning is a true collaborative project on many levels. Mossberg was co-editor on Antichrist and edited Pernille Fischer “Dig deep enough and you’ll two words when you’re on stage tonight, Christensen’s A Soap which won the Silver Bear in Berlin in 2006 “It sort of lampoons the feeling in a lot of small In 2006, Antony and the Johnsons and Charles Atlas as well as a Robert award for best editing. She recently co-edited find drama hiding everywhere.” 33-year-old filmmaker Christoffer Dreyer got his towns that they are victims of forces greater than Antony gently encourages the transsexual were touring Europe with the show Turning, which Ballroom Dancer, which is opening CPH:DOX 2011. start in the business as an editor but increasingly themselves. The railroad leaves town, the factory performers in the show Turning, as they they describe as a journey through an exotic terrain felt the need to tell his own stories. In 2006, he closes and the municipality announces improvements prepare to go on stage, in London. The scene of innocence, metamorphosis and androgyny. Now BULLITT FILM made The North Korean Friendship Society, a tongue- that never materialise. I play around with that feeling is from the upcoming music documentary the film explores the heart of that performance – the Founded 2006 by producers Vibeke Vogel and Elise Lund in-cheek look at a society which is still fighting to by taking a conspiracy theorist’s approach to my of the same name. New York-based film- synthesis of Antony’s magically alluring and vulnerable Larsen. Production catalogue includes feature films My Good convince the public that the official position towards sleuthing.” By Freja Dam maker Charles Atlas and Swedish-Danish musical universe and Atlas’ visual treatment of the 13 Enemy (2010), Profetia (2009) and Preludium (2008) and editor Åsa Mossberg are showing us cuts documentaries Solange on Love (2008), Nobody Passes North Korea is based on imperialistic lies. turning performers on stage. Perfectly (2009) and Turning (2011). Had to say goodbye His new film, The Detective, shines a light into an Films from the film in a tiny editing suite at Bullitt Adding another layer, the film takes us backstage, to their Chairman Uffe Elbæk in Autumn 2011 when he was overlooked corner of Denmark, painting a portrait The Detective (2011), The North Korean Friendship Society (2006). Film in Copenhagen. where the performers reveal glimpses of their some- appointed Denmark’s new Minister of Culture. PAGE 32 / FILM#73 / cph:dox inspiring new collaborations / dox:lab omar shargawi / 1/2 revolution / FILM#73 / PAGE 33

European filmmakers and financing Festival and won the Orrizonti prize as traditions get in touch with their non- part of the overall DOX:LAB concept. European equivalents. Over the last few Since DOX:LAB focuses on creative years, DOX:LAB has teamed up film- innovation through new encounters, it makers from Denmark, Sweden, Norway is pure gravy when the films turn out well. and Finland with fellow filmmakers “These are aesthetic experiments from Uganda, Bhutan, Malaysia, China, focusing on the process, but it would Syria, Argentina, Thailand, the be a lie if I told you we aren’t very Philippines, Burma, Lebanon, Palestine, interested in getting some finished Paraguay and Rwanda. films that can go to major festivals and “The idea emerged because we be seen, create attention and foster have travelled a lot for the festival discussion,” Fischer says. over the last decade and seen a lot of The 2010 group has done just that. films from every corner of the world. In November 2011, a new group of And trust me, films are being made, DOX:LAB talents are in position in the often under very difficult production lab to follow up on that success circumstances, that are cinematically innovative, aesthetically bold and far For further information on DOX:LAB, less homogeneous than a lot of the see www.cphdox.dk. films that are produced in Denmark. It’s

a different world. When the financing DOX:LAB / 2011-2012 landscape is weak or nonexistent, the Andreas Koefoed (DK) & Ivan Fund (RA) courage to think wild thoughts is much Jacob Schulsinger (DK) & Nicolas Pereda (Mex) more pervasive. Just as predictably, when Mira Jargil (DK) & Fred Kigozi (UG) Michael Madsen (DK) & Rania Attieh (LB) you have a more stable financing system, REVOLUTIONARy Ionut Piturescu (RO) & Jakrawal Nilthamrong (TH) you get a different kind of production Peter Kerekes (SK) & Kazuhiro Soda (JP) culture with many stakeholders,” Fia-Stina Sandlund (SE) & Alejo Moguillansky (RA) Fischer says. Marta Minorowicz (PL) & Laila Hotait (LB) Elina Talvensaari (FI) & Flora Lau (HK) “DOX:LAB really is ‘take the money Zeljka Sukova (HR) & Gustavo Beck (BR) BY ACCIDENT and run’. Ten days of development, eight Thomas Østbye & Edwin Accidentes Gloriosos, one of the films resulting from DOX:LAB 2010, won an award at the Venice International Film Festival Photo: DOX:LAB (NO) (ID) Director Omar Shargawi Photo: Aske Foss months of shooting and post-production – and 100,000 kroner (approx. 13,400 BY KRISTOFFER HEGNSVAD euros) to make it all happen. It’s the Omar Shargawi was preparing police who dragged us off to a military craziest challenge. The speed of the a film about street kids in Cairo prison in the middle of the desert,” Pairs of filmmakers who have never process itself unleashes a different kind when he was caught in the midst Shargawi says. He and El Hakim were met before get a small lump of money of energy. Plus, the collectivity that CPH:FORUM of the Egyptian revolution. 1/2 released only because they had western and a year to make a film together. emerges within the group has a big Revolution is his eyewitness passports. THE COURAGE That’s the basic concept of DOX:LAB, effect on the creative process.” account of the Arab Spring, “It all happened very quickly. We a talent development programme The Danish filmmaker Michael Noer / ART AND shown at CPH:DOX’s new started as spectators of a demonstration, created by the documentary film festival agrees. DOX:LAB 2009 teamed him section Free Radical. and suddenly we were in the middle of CPH:DOX matching young visual talents up with Khavn de la Cruz of the a revolution. We saw more death and from Europe with young international Philippines. Making Son of God together FILM It all started on 25 January. A major destruction during that time than we TO THINK filmmakers to co-direct documentaries in Manila was a richly rewarding demonstration against Mubarak was to had experienced in our entire lives.” outside of Europe. experience for the Danish talent. Who “owns” the grey area between take place, inspired by the upheavals 1/2 Revolution depicts the violent “Since its first years, CPH:DOX has “I have the greatest respect for film and visual art? What films are in Tunisia. So, together with his friend upheavals close-up and from a very been strongly involved in inspiring Khavn de la Cruz. It was wild, being on being produced there, where are and co-director Karim El Hakim, Omar personal angle. The two directors were continuing creative development of the the other side of the planet, in Manila, they shown, how are they developed Shargawi went out on the streets. able to document how revolutionary AND ACT documentary film genre,” CPH:DOX meeting a fellow digital warrior who and financed? These are some of the “We just wanted to get some footage optimism was replaced by fear of the festival director Tine Fischer says. was just as crazy as myself and jumping questions discussed at CPH:DOX’s and suddenly we became part of it. military’s ruthless brutality, but the DOX:LAB, which kicked off in 2009, is a CPH:DOX initiative to “DOX:LAB is the next natural step in right into things without thinking industry forum CPH:FORUM on The police started shooting against film is also a strong testimony to the stimulate talent development across all borders and cultures with that vision. We want to create a space about the bare-bones budget or my cinematic works that inhabit the grey the demonstrators. As we gave first Egyptian people’s will to break years’ the overall goal of evolving the documentary film genre. While its for artistic development, wild projects, jetlag and delicate stomach. DOX:LAB area between visual art and film. aid to somebody who was injured, we of oppression. For more information, focus is mainly on creative encounters and processes, the project unpredictability – without the was very valuable to my ongoing Two other types of works crossing were arrested and beaten by the secret see reverse section. has produced several highly watchable films. accommodations that financing and journey as a filmmaker,” Noer says. traditional boundaries are also in focus distribution invariably entail. at CPH:FORUM: hybrid films that lie “Bringing together two filmmakers Award in venice between documentary and fiction, from different cultural backgrounds Son of God got more attention than any and feature-length documentaries that within a lab-like framework that focuses other film from the first DOX:LAB. The work well in cinemas. on dialogue and process is a big help, second group that started out in 2010 CPH:FORUM is in line with the I think, in unleashing cinematic has several promising partnerships, festival’s ambition to stimulate the development.” including the team-up of the Danish financing, production and distribution artist Jesper Just and the Thai of artistic documentaries. The idea is AESTHETIC COURAGE documentary filmmaker Uruphong to connect artists, professional film- Since its launch in 2009, 40 filmmakers Raksasad. In September the Argentine- makers and institutions from the worlds have been through DOX:LAB, which Swedish duo, Mauro Andrizzi and of film and art in an exchange of starts with a joint workshop and Marcus Lindeen, took their film, knowledge, ideas and contacts, while culminates in a film. The idea is to let Accidentes Gloriosos, to the Venice Film indicating new ways of collaboration. WILDLY 1/2 Revolution. Framegrab PAGE 34 / FILM#73 / WHY POVERTY? / INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY PROJECT Why poverty? / solar mamas / FILM#73 / PAGE 35

to European and American networks, own background includes years of How to Do Good Rafea, who lives in a poor Bedouin also include Chinese, Korean, Japanese, experience working as a producer in by Bosse Lindquist village in Jordan, gets an offer to Malaysian and Brazilian television the US. Who really benefited from campaigns go to India and learn how to install stations. A number of major charitable “When you’re from a small country, involving international celebrities solar panels. This could help raise foundations have also contributed, it can be hard to raise your film to such as Make Poverty History, Live the standard of living in villages all including the Bill and Melinda Gates the point where it can break through 8 and One? Can we learn from past over Jordan. For Rafea it’s a unique Foundation and the Ford Foundation. internationally – making it bigger and mistakes and create change? opportunity, but it also has major AN “A well-told film works anywhere in broader and more universal. The films consequences for her family. She is the world,” Hoffmann Meyer says. in Why Poverty? will have budgets Animated History of Poverty the mother of four children, and her “So it’s important to use the best story- on a scale that makes it possible to by Ben Lewis husband does not approve of her tellers there are. We opted for directors do grade-A work. We hope they will In a radical mix of archival footage, decision. with some experience to ensure the inspire the industry that way.” LFJ reconstruction and animation, the necessary quality. film’s 10 chapters relate different AN EYE ON AMERICA AUDIENCE “What’s more, I think inter- attempts to eradicate poverty. Solar Mamas, which follows national collaboration broadens the Rafea’s struggle to make a difference view and brings more authenticity and Stealing Africa in the world, is co-directed by Jehane honesty to the stories. Obviously, a by Christoffer Guldbrandsen Noujaim and Mona Eldaief, and for Solar Mamas Photo: Neil Davenport Chinese filmmaker will understand the The growing economies in the East producer Mette Heide of Plus Pictures Chinese school system better than we WHY and the established economies in the there’s huge potential in developing OF 500 ever could by researching.” West profit from African corruption. films and composing crews across Would stopping the corruption put an continents. TO FORGE INTERNATIONAL TIES Poverty? end to extreme poverty? The two co-directors, Noujaim Klara Grunning-Harris, film and Eldaief, come with a raft of The project is initiated and produced commissioner at the Danish Film Chinese Dream advantages. They grew up in the US by Mette Hoffmann Meyer of the Institute, which is supporting the films, by Weijun Chen and were trained by top documentary Danish national broadcaster DR and thinks an important element of the Chinese families set aside everything filmmakers. And because they are half- MILLION Nick Fraser of the BBC, via STEPS project is how it will be creating new International and its executive producer, else to ensure that their child gets Egyptian and speak Arabic, they can connections among documentary Don Edkins. The Danish Film Institute a college education. But does the communicate easier with Rafea and Why, in the 21st century, The head of documentaries at filmmakers. is supporting the films with 350,000 overcrowded job market even have the other people in the film. do a billion people still live Denmark’s national broadcaster DR is “This is a great opportunity for the euros. The films are scheduled for room for all these young graduates? The film follows other women, in poverty? To answer that producing Why Poverty? with BBC Danish film industry, and the Danish screening in November 2012. too, from Kenya, Columbia and question, the Why Poverty? documentary editor Nick Fraser and Film Institute, to play in the inter- Broadcasters co-financing the films’ The Next Harvest Burkina Faso. At those locations, the project has enlisted some of the South African producer Don Edkins. national arena with some of the development: BBC/UK, DR/Denmark, by Hugo Berkeley and Osvalde Lewat crew was expanded with handpicked the world’s best documentary “We want to create a more nuanced biggest international actors, like BBC, SVT/Sweden, VPRO/Netherlands, Who will be controlling a region of field directors. One was Andreas filmmakers to produce 8 one- view of global poverty and rock the ZDF, ARTE, NHK,” Grunning-Harris NRK/Norway, YLE/Finland, prime farmland in the African nation of Koefoed, also from Denmark, who hour documentaries and 30 traditional NGO understanding of the says. PTS/Taiwan, ORF/Austria, TV3 Mali? Will education help secure farmers’ joined the shoot in India. The film’s Rafea, on the doorstep, in Solar Mamas Photo: Neil Davenport short documentaries intended global North as donating to the global “The eight films we are supporting CATALUNYA/Spain, MBC/Middle East, rights to the crops from their land? editor, Jean Tsien, is Chinese and was to stimulate global discussion. South. For example, infant mortality are made by some of the best film- SABC/South Africa, CANAL FUTURA/ picked because she has experience take the children away. Shortly, she “Rafea’s story is among poor people in the US is higher makers working today. We will be part Brazil, NHK/Japan. Upstairs Downstairs with editing international productions went back to her village in Jordan. One tests the claim that a child’s than in some places in Africa,” of a big campaign that will generate by Alex Gibney and a knack for telling human-interest “When you produce international dramatic but also opportunities in life can largely be Hoffmann Meyer says. dialogue and activity around the globe solar mamas In America today 1% of the population stories, Heide says. projects, it’s important to give them extremely inspiring to predicted at birth. Another tracks the “As public broadcasters, we want across all platforms, and we are in on by Jehane Noujaim & Mona Eldaief owns 45% of the country’s wealth. Heide is drawing on the network broad appeal. Rafea’s story is dramatic state of the overcrowded Chinese job to engage people through films that the ground floor.” See opposite page. Alex Gibney takes a critical look at she has built up from her many but also extremely inspiring to women in the West – market, and yet another takes a critical set the agenda and stimulate greater “We make good films in Denmark. the American dream. productions. As a producer, she has women in the West – and even more and even more so to look at the American dream in the 21st understanding of the challenges we We have a strong, aesthetic approach Welcome to the World kept an eye on America. so to women in the Arab world.” century. face in the world. A good story can get and we aren’t afraid to take chances, by Brian Hill “I produce with talent from both Rafea went home, but she rebelled. women in the Arab These are three of the films by people out of their chairs emotionally but the Danish film industry needs to Knowing the details of a child’s birth the Danish and American scenes. Despite her husband’s protests, she world.” renowned filmmakers taking part in and intellectually.” get out in the world and forge direct largely makes it possible to predict The US is exciting from a producer’s made up her mind to go back to India

Why Poverty?, an international project and lasting ties to production how that child will fare in the future. point of view, because Americans and finish her training. The film plus pictures to generate discussion about poverty TOP FILMMAKERS companies and broadcasters,” says The film takes a look at births in are conscious about the market in a follows that whole turn of events. Founded 2008 by Mette Heide. Among recent and the possibilities and challenges of Steps International was behind Why the DFI film commissioner. Her widely different parts of the world. solar way that’s interesting to incorporate “We need engaging and entertaining titles are The Invention of Dr Nakamats by improving life for millions of people Democracy?, a 2007 project of 27 in documentary film production. documentaries that give us other views Kaspar Astrup Schröder and Last White Man Standing by Justin Webster. pluspictures.dk. around the world. films that reached 250 million people Moreover, there is something about of the world. Documentaries can do worldwide. The bar is even higher this mamas the American storytelling structure, that. We can penetrate into unknown create a more nuanced view time: Why Poverty? aims to engage 500 and it’s more interesting to speak to areas and relate real-life drama in a More than 40 broadcasters are backing million people, when the films start Mette Heide is producer of many millions of viewers instead of nuanced way. In this film, we want the project and will be airing the films. airing in the last week of November Solar Mamas, one of the eight a few hundred thousand.” to avoid the stereotypes and show a The discussion will spread via websites 2012. documentaries in Why Poverty?, reality we didn’t know before. And we and mobile platforms, while fostering Hoffmann Meyer is a driving force a project that speaks about AVOIDING STEREOTYPES want to do this by telling a story with dialogue and activities at universities in the project as one of three executive global poverty through human Most of the photography for Solar a strong main character and powerful and schools. producers raising the 8 million stories. The experienced Mamas is in the can. Rafea, the dramaturgy,” Heide says. “Our goal is to move the under- euros – for production, Internet, producer warmly welcomes Bedouin woman, left for India and An extended theatrical feature, standing of poverty. We want to promotion, etc. – that it takes for the the opportunity to work with quickly proved herself to be one of in addition to the TV documentary, generate discussion about the world’s project to achieve the desired quality an international team of film- the smartest students at the school. will be ready in early 2012. The TV poorest people, provide insight into and dissemination. A large chunk of makers which includes Arab- But midway through the course, she version is going out on 25 November the issues and create a backdrop for the financing is provided by the many American co-directors Jehane got a call from Jordan. Her husband 2012, along with the seven other action,” Mette Hoffmann Meyer says. broadcasters that this time, in addition Noujaim and Mona Eldaief. was threatening to divorce her and documentaries under the project. LFJ Mette Hoffmann Meyer, head of DFI Film commissioner Klara Grunning-Harris Producer Mette Heide Photo: Plus Pictures documentaries at DR Photo: DR Photo: DFI PAGE 36 / FILM#73 / ONE TO WATCH / KASPAR ASTRUP SCHRÖDER HELLE HANSEN / DFI FILM COMMISSIONER / FILM#73 / PAGE 37

segments with an animated mascot WHAT’S UP IN DENMARK and weird fashion shows. I think you For the last seven years, Hansen has should be 100 percent behind the worked in close partnership with job you agree to do, whether you get the journalist and commentator paid for it or not. But I accepted and Jens Olaf Jersild, who has taken up my worries were put to shame. I had social and political issues for serious SHOOTING to learn to give up some control, but treatment in a series of high-profile all along I was able to stand by my TV programmes on DR. Maintaining reports. I learned so much and I’m the open and humble basic attitude actually very proud about a lot of the from her days of volunteering, she things I got to do on the show.” feels well prepared for her new job as DFI commissioner. FROM WORDS MATTER “I think I’m well equipped to see The short reports Hansen made for what’s going on in Denmark. Where the show and for a youth programme is our society headed, politically, gradually grew into complete TV culturally, socially? In my opinion, programmes and documentaries good documentaries should make produced with funding from the Danish a difference. They are essential in

Helle Hansen Photo: Robin Skjoldborg Film Institute. Her interest continued to our democracy. Films should make THE HIP involve giving a voice to vulnerable or noise, be unpleasant, make us happy unjustly treated groups of people. or angry. As long as they don’t leave Perhaps that’s why I do so many things “It’s awesome when worked without pay. Later, she helped Her films have tackled subjects people indifferent. I think there are a myself. I produce, direct, shoot, do start up TV Stop. As an alternative to ranging from the Danish squatters lot of courageous filmmakers, directors the graphics, colour grade and co-edit people like what you ESSENTIAL the established media, this community movement to Syrian refugee children as well as producers, who are willing most of my own films. It’s not that I do. That’s why I do it.” TV station was aimed to be a mouth- forced to live underground. She to take up difficult and controversial think someone else couldn’t do it just piece for vulnerable, overlooked once tracked a female health worker subjects. That’s a distinct and good as well. It’s just that some things are groups and individuals in Denmark. in Nepal and she recently put the trend,” Hansen says. fun to do yourself.” The protagonist is his own son Storm. VOICES finishing touches on a film about the “The big challenge for me, and for Acting as his favourite own one-man 100 percent behind the job tone of the Danish immigration debate, us as a Film Institute, is to insist on RENT-A-FAMILY crew, Schröder enjoyed being able to There is a common thread in So it didn’t seem at all obvious when, entitled The Power of Words. the artistic quality that gives films a Dr Nakamats grew out of Schröder’s do it all himself. “It was great to be able all of Helle Hansen’s work. The in the early nineties, Hansen elected “The film shows how the political long life. Supporting the director in longstanding fascination with Japan, to roll when I got a good scene. So I Danish Film Institute’s new to continue her training as a journalist rhetoric has changed over the past his or her visions. We have enough where he has travelled widely. His didn’t have to call up a photographer commissioner for documentaries on a broad, primetime entertainment decades, from the time everyone superficial snapshots as it is.” SN next film, which was selected for IDFA in the middle of the night and say, has years of experience as a series on national television, but that’s laughed at the right-wing politician Forum last year, feeds on the same Storm is crying, can you be here in one journalist and filmmaker. A what happened. She got a call asking if Mogens Glistrup and his ‘Out with the HELLE HANSEN fascination. second?” driving force in every job she ever she would be interested in a job on a Mohammedans’ to the present day Born 1963. Journalist and director of “The film is called I Want to Cheer Schröder has a record coming held, paid or unpaid, has been popular Friday evening show. Hansen when condescending speech about numerous documentary films for TV. Hansen You Up Ltd. and is about a company out in December and a show of his to give a voice to those who knew it was a terrific opportunity. She immigrants has spread from the parties has since 2004 among other things worked that rents out family members. In paintings in Japan. Still, the director have a hard time being heard. was thrilled but also deeply conflicted. on the right to the parties on the left with acclaimed journalist and commentator Jens Olaf Jersild on a series on politics for Japan, it’s a big deal to have an equal says, he doesn’t have time for so many “I actually cried after that call,” and, in turn, to the public discussion the national broadcaster DR. Hansen recently number of people from both families different things anymore now that he Helle Hansen cut her journalist teeth she says. “I asked myself if I really in general. There has been what I directed the documentaries BZ and The Power attend a wedding. In the film a woman has children. at a left-wing weekly, where everyone wanted to be responsible for goofy TV consider a highly troubling shift.” of Words for DR and the Danish Film Institute. Director Kaspar Astrup Schröder Photo: Per Morten Abrahamsen is about to be married but has never “Before, I could work evenings and told her soon-to-be husband that she nights. People used to ask me, How has no family, so she hires every actor many hours do you have in a day?” CLAUS LADEGAARD MALENE FLINDT PEDERSEN “People used to ask me, How many hours do at the company to play her family. Schröder likes to keep a ball or two DFI KEY CONTACTS Head of Department Head of Development you have in a day?” Many hilarious situations ensue, of in the air, so he always has something / Production & Development / Production & Development course. In fact, it’s really difficult to new for his audience. “It’s awesome / IDFA 2011 [email protected] [email protected] make a film that’s about keeping when people like what you do. That’s Cell +45 4032 6212 Cell +45 2744 2567 Kaspar Astrup Schröder has to wear many hats. Audiences at secrets. why I do it.” ABJ had two films shown at IDFA, international festivals will know the “I Want to Cheer You Up Ltd. was My Playground and The 32-year-old multi-talented director supposed to have been finished this For further information on Mine Mine, Invention of Dr Nakamats. for his first two films, which were year but had to be postponed because see reverse section. KLARA GRUNNING-HARRIS Noemi Ferrer Schwenk Helle Hansen Both reflect a few truths both selected for IDFA: The Invention of the tsunami and the earthquake. But DFI Film Commissioner International Producer DFI Film Commissioner about their creator: Schröder of Dr Nakamats, about the eccentric we – my producer Mette Heide and / Short Fiction & Documentary / Short Fiction & Documentary KASPAR ASTRUP SCHRÖDER [email protected] has the explosive energy of a Japanese inventor who is the father of I – will have it done by summer. We’re Born 1979, Denmark. Self-taught visual [email protected] Cell +45 5096 7411 [email protected] parkour runner and the creative the floppy disk and holds at least 3,500 considering turning it into a fiction film artist, photographer, composer, designer and Cell +45 2250 5835 Cell +45 5096 6725 ingenuity of the Japanese other patents, and My Playground, as well, because the whole setup has so director. His first two films, The Invention of Dr patent holder Dr Nakamats. which chronicles the urban pheno- much built-in drama and comedy.” Nakamats (2009) and My Playground (2010), were both selected for IDFA. Releases in 2012 Meet a multi-talent who is menon of parkour. include the children’s documentary Mine Mine finishing a new film from Japan “My method is very ‘shoot from ONE-MAN CREW and I Want to Cheer You Up Ltd., produced by JAKOB KIRSTEIN HØGEL ANNE MARIE KÜRSTEIN Anders Budtz-Jørgensen and whose work ethic seems to the hip,’” Schröder says. “When I get Earlier this year, the director became Mette Heide for Plus Pictures. Artistic Director Festival Consultant Press Contact / New Danish Screen / Shorts & Documentaries be: Just go ahead and do it! an idea, I just want to go ahead and do a father for the second time. His short [email protected] it. The research and financing can be film Mine Mine is a documentary [email protected] [email protected] Cell +45 2256 7020 Visual artist, photographer, composer, worked out later. The worst thing that for the youngest audiences about Cell +45 2421 3584 Cell +45 4041 4697 designer, filmmaker – take your pick. can happen is losing your drive and becoming a big brother and having Kaspar Astrup Schröder is happy talking and thinking things to death. to share the world with a newcomer.