April 15, 2023

INTERVIEW: MARTIN SKOVBJERG ON HIS UNNERVING ‘COPENHAGEN DOES NOT EXIST’- IFFR 2023

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If you have ever wondered what utter isolation feels like, this film will keep you well-seated. Slowly, it will reveal (or complexify) all the reasoning one might have in doing so.

Do not get this wrong; the film is primarily a clean-cut portrait of (social) renunciation and consensual isolation. From the best narrator possible: the feeling of it. Sander, the main (and ghostly-like) character, is set in an empty apartment in front of a camera, trying to narrate his life with his now missing girlfriend, to her father and brother. 

This story is an adaptation of the Norwegian novel ‘Sander’ by Terje Holtet Larsen, pieced into a screenplay by the master of his kind Eskil Vogt (i.e. ‘The Worst Person in the World’-2021, ‘Thelma-2017, ‘Blind’-2014) and fleshed out by the outstanding Martin Skovbjerg. That said, you should expect strong punch-up critiques of our social paradigm. Of course, it won’t sober you up. Probably it will carry you along its path of questioning how you feel your life, how you hold on to your memories, and how or if your consciousness is connected with your body.

Copenhagen doesn’t exist,’ imbued with red and blue colours, is an absorbing psychological thriller any dark soul would be jealous of. For it reveals the ugly reality of a meandering-from-the-norm mind. And it does it with discipline. No unnecessary details or background will destruct your thoughts from the main course. Which is to understand what led to the missing of Ida.

Shortly after the first screening, the director, Martin Skovbjerg, shared with us his perspective and experience of the film.

The film has a very clean narrative, starting from the script itself. Something that is perfectly supported by the colours’ choices, the specificity of the filming locations, and the strong focus on your four characters. What are the first questions you hope the audience starts developing when watching the film?

The idea was to give people space to just be with characters. Without all the things you normally use to empathise with the characters. So the start of the film is about feeling like you are there, present with the character. And later on, hopefully, they start questioning what is love. I also wanted to have people asking themselves why they live their lives like they do. This is a big question. But as long as you have asked yourself, you have come a long way. We tried to portray this in the film, with some of the encounters the main characters have. Some people get it, some people don’t.

The film starts with the premise of a strong love connection. Shortly it hints towards social suffocation and maybe insanity because of that, and at points it becomes political. What is your reading?

The film doesn’t point out how we live or how we should live. I think it is just talking to humanity in some kind of way. For example, ‘Are you sure you have to have a Facebook account?’ That is one of the biggest things that happens to me while watching a film. When I go out of the cinema, I often wonder, why are we so stupid? Maybe I should live in another way. 

The thing that this film brings is, whether you are wealthy or not, you will still have to consider if you’re happy. I personally think that if you have wealth and you do not feel happy, you probably feel even worse inside. You can have everything in the world, besides happiness; happiness is not something you just have. We tried to visualize that also in this film. The part of trying to find happiness in just one person instead of the whole world. And I think that’s really beautiful. The two characters try to do that; and the rest of the world has a big problem with that, because it is not normal. For me, the question is what is normal? And is normal good? I suggest asking each other these things. 

Monitoring and memories are both quite prominent in your story. The father is interrogating Sander while filming and displaying his face on a screen. They are both strong cinematic tools, and in this case, they bring up a thriller aspect of life. What was your idea?

I used monitoring in a crazy or hardcore way. The father has been working a lot, so he didn’t have much time with his daughter. Since she went missing, he doesn’t have memories of her. The way he tries to gain memories is actually through her boyfriend. He is filming him telling stories about her. He is trying to make a photo album of his daughter by filming another person speaking about her. He is trying to get that through the video camera. I felt that this could be a beautiful visualization of missing someone, when you are trying to remember stories, or just something, this could actually be the way you would do it. It is kind of the same thing. How do you keep an image of people you don’t have anymore in your life?

Your leading actor, Jonas Holst Schmidt, gave a captivating performance. How did you work with your cast?

It was a very special process. Because Jonas Holst Schmidt (i e. Sander in the film) is not an actor. He didn’t even know what acting on camera meant. I could just feel the pureness of Sander inside Jonas—this was amazing. I just had to keep this real. While we were working on the film, people around me were wondering if he should get acting lessons. But I refused because I don’t really like acting. I like reality. I like being actually present. And that’s what Jonas did. We worked a lot together towards Sander’s character, and he understood him, he gave everything. The special thing about Sander is that he doesn’t really show empathy throughout the whole film. But by closing his eyes and thinking of Ida, you get empathy towards him. This is striking, how you can get empathy for someone just because he is closing his eyes. Because this can actually tell you there is something beautiful inside his head. For me, that was very special. That’s how we worked together. I tried to do that with all the characters, also with Zlatko Buric (i e. Porath the father in the film.) If you have the toolbox of what the character is, then you can actually be present without acting. 

The script is amazing. I was blown away when I read it for the first time. Although, the way we worked on it was quite slow. We had to cut out a lot of dialogue, otherwise, the film would run for 4 hours. I also love improvisation. I prefer to be around the script. I think if you have a script as beautiful as this one, the magic is there even if you use just a few words of it. And I love catching this magic. With all the respect to the script, of course. I think there is also magic when the actors don’t really know where it’s going, but then they catch each other somehow and take it back on track. I love using this, both in the acting and in editing. 

What can you share with us from your cooperation with Eskil Vogt?

Eskil is a very special human being. Because he is so generous. I still have to give him my respects, mostly because some of his earliest work is among my favourites films. Like ‘Louder than Bombs,’ really changed a lot in me. When we started working, we were on different levels. For me, this was my second film, while he was just nominated for an Oscar. We are at different points in our lives. But I never felt this difference with Eskil. He just wanted to work with me, and being respected by him has been a huge thing for me. I hope we will do more stuff together. Right now, we are just celebrating the fact that we did a film together, and I loved every second of it.

Besides shots from Copenhagen, you take us to some astonishing natural landscapes. How did you choose them?

The first time I read the script, I felt that this cabin was in some sort of heaven. I thought that we have to find a place where heaven and earth kind of pulse together. A place where you don’t know where the horizon line is. We needed a visual identity that wouldn’t feel real. We scouted a lot about this location, and then we found this magic cabin in Sweden. It was on its own island, with no electricity, no order, nothing. Everybody thought we cannot work at that place, but everybody also knew that this was the right place. So we made it work. That was very special, being there with the team. It also gave very much to the actors. You just felt that it was a special place. I knew that, for the cabin scene, we had to visualize a ‘getting away,’ getting some air, away from the city. This gives something more to the story. As if you can escape to paradise.

‘Copenhagen Does Not Exist’ is doing quite well so far! It premiered at the IFFR and screened at the Göteborg Film Festival, where it received the Best Cinematography award. What do you hope for your next film? 

I hope I won’t be shooting during a pandemic. We were shooting in the toughest lockdown in Danish history. Back then, we didn’t have vaccines yet. Zlatko was nearly 70 years old, so we were scared. Also, everything was very dark. The world was in a dark place. The film itself, it’s not like a comedy. So, it was hard working on this film. We had just one day, one scene, where we could laugh all day while shooting. The rest of the days were very intense. I miss laughing. I think the world as well misses laughing. In the middle of the shooting, my hair got grey within three weeks. That says a lot. My body was showing. So, hopefully, with the next one I can get rid of it. I would love to make a project where we laugh while writing and shooting, but also in the cinemas afterward. 

‘Copenhagen Does Not Exist’ (København findes ikke) premiered at the 52nd International Film Festival Rotterdam, as part of the Big Screen Competition. The film is released this February in Danish cinemas.

2023, Country: Denmark | 93 mins | Dir: Martin Skovbjerg | Writer: Eskil Vogt | Stars: Jonas Holst Schmidt, Zlatko Buric, Angela Bundalovic, Vilmer Trier Brøgger | Cinematography: Jacob Møller

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