1864 page 1 ‘YOU ARE ABOUT TO ENTER INTO A SAGA...’ Ole Bornedal 1864 1864 page 2 page 3 1864 1864 page 4 page 5 1864 is the first Danish epic contemporary Denmark and the What is your relationship to the drama series of this size. Why? Danes. The tragic loss and ultimate story? humiliation became a turning point for OB Epic dramas are extremely rare in the nation, moving from an outward- OB The battle at Dybbøl Mill has always Scandinavia where the high production looking perspective, defining itself as held my interest. I am knowledgeable as costs make it very difficult to explore an influential nation in Europe, to one to the historical relationships behind the historical themes. Even though of looking inwards, defining itself and battle and the personalities that were an recent Scandinavian TV series have its qualities as a people - for better or influential part of it. But if it is romance, marketed themselves successfully on the worse - as one family. What is known war or drama, if it’s poetic, factual, international scene as some of the most today as the “Danish welfare model” intimate, expressive or brutal, I’ll leave interesting and probing psychological - the nation taking care of all of its that up to the film gods. The closest one dramas, budgets are still very limited. citizens - has its offspring from that can come to an answer is this: that 1864 In fact, it is only with the aid of new momentum and self-definition. encompassed it all. I have seldom had government funding that this production Thus, as in many of life’s instances, the a story in my hands that was so open was made possible – a funding process I chaos, conflict and suffering of wartime for the telling of such deep, universal found very challenging. generated a new creative soil to grow stories. And the more I investigated it, in. the more attracted I was, as it was so Why tell a story about the war generous. Throughout many years I have of 1864? What is your story? Interview with thought of these pictures: A thundering heaven with fear-stricken Danish OB As individuals we are all built on the OB 1864 has many characters and consists soldiers underneath it, and then the history of our nations - our genes of many tales. But foremost we follow Prussians attack and within a few hellish inherited from our parents and their two brothers, Laust and Peter, and hours father and son are extinguished in parents before them - the ones who their relationship with Inge, a quite a savage storm of violence that was to be Ole Bornedal cultivated the soil and fought not just extraordinary woman for the times forever engrained in the Danish national the daily battles of survival, but the real - a modern woman, intelligent and consciousness. And strangely enough, wars as well. We tend to forget in the beautiful and fighting for her rights. ultimately forgotten. I always thought global consumer society that the issues A relationship rooted in childhood, that there must be one big story in this at hand are always the next issues and as they grow up together, it gets both for all of us. A history of people caught not the ones we left behind. We live for stronger and problematic as both in a mad and fatal reality, and this story the future and not the past - even if the Laust and Peter fall in love with her. I am very happy to be able to tell. past is the absolute definition of what we The brothers are simple peasants, Does 1864 depict the actual are and why. There is no such thing as a and quite unlike the spoiled and history of the war? ‘Scandinavian war film’ for quite obvious tormented Baron’s son, Didrich, who reasons. Historically, the big wars meant is also in love with Inge. During either neutrality for our country or, at this time the national liberals in As with all historical film or TV most, stories of small resistance groups Copenhagen, led by Hall, Lundbye OB productions, artistic liberties need to fighting Nazis. and especially Monrad, are talking be taken within the historical context. about expanding the nation, creating Some characters we make too much of, What does 1864 mean for the one large Kingdom and annexing the others, much too little. These choices are Danes of today? county of Slesvig to make this happen. made to enable the proper function of This, despite all treaties stating it a dramatic correctness within our story OB 1864 was the last “great war”, a would be against international law and as opposed to a historical correctness. punishing conflict that relegated result in provoking the German state For example, Heiberg is overdone as a Denmark to the tiny nation it is today. to no end. But Denmark is euphoric, dramatic figure, but the point is that A nation that over the centuries self-confident and strong, a nation as a cultural figure she most likely, via developed from being the ultimate freshened by new winds, new ideas and detours, played a large and inspirational power in northern Europe, to end up a new constitution. However, across the role in the war, just as Grundtvig did. being humiliated and more or less border, there is Prussia and Bismarck. It is historically correct that the cultural disgraced in the eyes of European It’s a classic story about power and the elite supported this war, and that is what politics. In a meaningless war built on abuse of power and of people getting we have described. But how we do it has a thin layer of euphoric nationalism, separated. been influenced by our artistic freedom. its outcome, more or less, defines 1864 1864 page 6 page 7 1864 1864 page 8 page 9 Synopsis Denmark is enthused following the victories over the Prussians in the war 1848- 51, and is now scheming to annex Schleswig into the Danish Kingdom. Inflamed with nationalism the leader of the Danish parliament Monrad neglects all European treaties and throws the country into war with Prussia. At the same time the two peasant who lost her brother in the war in extraordinary love story of Peter, Laust brothers Laust and Peter grow up and Afghanistan, is forced to work as an aide and Inge and how the brothers along fall in love with the well-read and for the old Baron near the place where with thousands of Danish soldiers fight beautiful Inge. But when the war erupts Peter and Laust grew up. Claudia finds one of the bloodiest battles in Danish Peter and Laust volunteer for the army. Inge’s diary and through the personal history. The slaughterhouse at Dybbøl Meanwhile in 2014 the young story of the eccentric Baron she becomes that changed Denmark forever. maladjusted and depressed Claudia, an eyewitness to history and the 1864 1864 page 10 page 11 1864 1864 page 12 page 13 I read the letters fromat the the frontsoldiers - exciting characters whom you immediately felt in the presence of and who brought forth the melancholy of your soul. Ole Bornedal Ole Bornedal 1864 1864 page 14 page 15 ‘1864 IS A MAGNIFICENT PIECE OF DANISH HISTORY, ART AND CRAFTSMANSHIP. PRODUCING THIS EPIC DRAMA HAS BEEN CHALLENGING AND MIND BLOWING, AND THANKS TO A LOT OF TALENTED PEOPLE WE ARE EXTREMELY PROUD TO PRESENT 1864 TO THE AUDIENCE AROUND THE WORLD.’ Jonas Allen & Peter Bose, Producers, Miso Film 1864 1864 page 16 page 17 1864 1864 page 18 page 19 As I delved deeper into all the abandoned memories scattered in the dust after the thundering cannons, I found the entire seed for this series.Ole Bornedal 1864 18641864 page 20 page 2121 1864 1864 page 22 page 23 1864 1864 page 24 page 25 1864 1864 page 26 page 27 1864 1864 page 28 page 29 Cast Jens Frederik Sætter-Lassen Jacob Oftebro Sidse Babett Knudsen Plays Peter Plays Laust Plays Johanne Louise Heiberg {ID:A, Borgen} {Kon-tiki, Max Manus} {Borgen, The One and Only} Photo: Iza Jacobs Anders Heinrichsen Photo: Freiheit Stephen Photo: Søren Malling Pilou Asbæk Bent Mejding Plays Johan Plays Didrich Plays Severin {Borgen, A Royal Affair} {Sex, Drugs & Taxation, R, Borgen} {A Royal Affair, The Killing} Photo: courtesy of Annetta Elmo Management Robin Photo: Skjoldborg Photo: Elona Sjøgren Nicolas Bro Rainer Bock James Fox Plays Monrad Plays Bismarck Plays Lord Palmerston {Nymphomaniac, Reconstruction} {Inglorious Basterds, Unknown Identity} {Charlie & The Chocolate Factory} Photo: Robin Photo: Skjoldborg Photo: Stefan Kluter Gusov Sasha Photo: Sarah Sofie Boussnina Marie Tourell Søderberg Søren Pilmark Plays Claudia Plays Inge Plays Lundbye {Bora Bora, Disgrace, Park Road} {Sex, Drugs & Taxation, Itsi Bitzi} {The Killing, King’s Game} Photo: courtesy of Lindberg Management Photo: Isak Hoffmeyer Photo: Bax Lindhardt Lars Mikkelsen Barbara Flynn Søren Sætter-Lassen Plays Tøger Plays Queen Victoria Plays De Meza {Headhunter, Kira’s Reason} {Miss Potter, Hornblower} {Marie Krøyer, I am Dina} Photo: Miklos Szabo Photo: Miklos Szabo Photo: Daniel Kennedy 1864 page 31 Facts People Writer & Director Ole Bornedal (The Possession, I Am Dina, Nightwatch) Genre Producers Love & War Epic Drama Jonas Allen & Peter Bose Budget (Dicte, Those Who Kill, Veum) 23 million Euros Co-Producers Country / Language Nadia Kløvedal Reich & Piv Bernth (The Legacy, Borgen, The Killing) Denmark / Danish Ole Bornedal First Release Director of Photography Fall 2014 Dan Laustsen Format (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Silent Hill, Solomon Kane) Scope 1 : 2.35 Production Designer Sound Niels Sejer (A Royal Affair, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Bridge) 5.1 Costume Designer Duration Manon Rasmussen TV Series: 8 x 58 Minutes (The Hunt, Melancholia, In A Better World) Feature Film: 150 Minutes Make-Up Designer Produced by Bjørg Serup Miso Film (The Hunt, Submarino, Brotherhood) In Co-Production with Casting Danmarks Radio Karin Jagd 4Fiction (All For Two, Just Another Love Story, The Substitute) FilmFyn Sirena Film Editors Supported by Anders Villadsen (The Possession, Deliver Us From Evil, Just Another Love Story) TV2 Norway Benjamin Binderup TV4 Sweden (Dicte, Room 205, Those Who Kill) AB Svensk Filmindustri Jacob Thuesen ARTE (Little Soldier, Wallander - The Next Step, It’s All About Love) ZDF Enterprises Nordisk Film & TV Fond Music MEDIA Marco Beltrami Bitten & Mads Clausens Fond (Carrie, World War Z, A Good Day To Die Hard) Still Photography Per Arnesen (Love Is All You Need, The Hunt, In A Better World) Credits Not Contractual.