DANEMARK
2014 / WORLD PREMIERE
1H24 VO DANOIS
Synopsis
The young woman, Marie, is an outsider in the small coastal community where she has grown up. The townspeople live in fear of her and not least her mother, who is wheelchair bound, suffering from a mysterious illness. When Marie discovers her body changing – long hair growing on her chest and back – she begins searching for answers concerning her family’s hidden past. Something that will have great consequences for herself and her family – and the choices she has to make.
DIRECTOR: Jonas Alexander Arnby
SCREENPLAY: Rasmus Birch
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Niels Thastum
EDITING: Peter Brandt
SOUND: Sylvester Holm
PRODUCTION DESIGN: Sabine Hviid
MUSIC: Mikkel Hess
CAST:
SOUNDia Suhl
Lars Mikkelsen
SOUNDja Richter
Jakob Oftebro
Mads Riisom
Esben Dalgaard
Gustav Giese
Benjamin Boe
Tina Gylling Mortensen
PRODUCTION
ALPHAVILLE PICTURES COPENHAGEN
Caroline Schlûter Bingestam
Tel. +45 3391 9170
schluter@alphavillepictures.com
INTERNATIONAL PRESS AGENT
GAUMONT
Ariane Toscan du Plantier
atoscan@gaumont.fr
Sophie Bollotte
sbollotte@gaumont.fr
Tel. +33 (0)1 46 43 20 37
A film involving a werewolf isn't the easiest one to start with…
Well, I didn’t want to make a werewolf movie, I hate werewolf movies! I wanted to tell the story of a young girl that grows throughout the film. A coming-of-age-story that involves a realistic approach in its storytelling, and where we plant this "gun", which in this case is the werewolf. It’s the story of a girl who finds the beast inside herself and has to choose whether she wants to reject it or to embrace it. Our goal was to clear out the pre-existing dogmas that spectators have on werewolves: no full moon, no overgrown eyebrows, no howling against the moon or whatsoever.
What attracted you in Lars Mikkelsen's way of playing?
Lars is one the finest actor Denmark can offer. He’s so f… good! His timing, his involvement into his character and his understanding of its psychology… And I like how intriguing his gaze is. There’s a truly cinematic depth in his look, which is very appealing: it’s like there is a story hidden in there, somewhere behind his eyes.
But Sonia Suhl, who plays Marie, his mysterious daughter, is a non-professional…
We have been casting at least 400 amateur girls from the region where we wanted to shoot the film, Jutland. I wanted a girl from that part of the world and I wanted to be sure that she would be in her right element. Sonia was born and raised an hour and half away from our location, her dad is a fisherman, and she already worked in a fishing factory before...So of course I fell in love with that! She was special, fragile, beautiful, but with a darker side. She also seems to hide a secret! So we coached her but carefully, in order not to destroy her “film innocence”, so to speak.
Interview by Pamela Pianezza
