Ten short films from Nordic “Directors to watch” follows the December issues of the Nordic film magazines RUSHPRINT in Norway, EKKO in Denmark, Episodi in Finland and FLM in Sweden. One of the directors is Aske Bang with «Ladyboy».

– How did you get the idea for the film?

“The idea came to me when I was at a bar in Copenhagen. I was at this bar called Café Sommersted, all by myself and I was suffering from heartaches. Then I met a transvestite who had also come to the bar all alone. It was so fascinating to see this person who was both a man and a woman. We started talking and then he – or she – told me about how it is to live as a transvestite, how hard it can be. Then I thought: ‘I want to make a film about this.’ And when that was decided there was nothing else to do but start working on the project. Research, presenting ideas, writing and so on. Eventually I ended up with a story that I myself find very touching – and then suddenly there is a possibility that others might feel the same way – and that turns me on.”

– Which feelings do you hope the audience is left with after watching the film?

”I want the audience to sit back with a feeling of love being an universal thing that everybody needs regardless of their sexual orientation. But at the same time it will be cool by me if they forget this message and – like in Brokeback Mountain – just think that it is a great love story. And that love between homosexuals is something completely natural and nothing special or different.”

– What has this film meant for your career?

“It was the film that granted me access to The National Film School of Denmark, so it has already had a tremendous impact on my career. Later the film has had a life on its own on Ekko Shortlist where it’s currently rated number two on the All Time-list. I’m super happy about that.”

”That it is on the Directors to Watch-dvd is a huge opportunity for me to become visible in the Nordic media landscape. The film has also been shared a lot on Facebook. Thus has it been seen by a lot of different people which may be the most important thing to me. Movies should not only be seen by movie buffs. It is truly heartwarming when ‘ordinary’ people tell me that they have been touched by Ladyboy.”

– Why does the film look the way it does – aesthetically and stylistically?

“I was born and raised at Nørrebro myself, so it was important to me to describe that part of Copenhagen as authentic as possible. The iconographic entrance to the quarter with the Irma-neon sign at Dronning Louise’s Bro is the image that finishes this movie. To me this image signals an entry point to a world where all kinds of stories can happen. Nørrebro is a microcosm containing all the different elements you will find out in the global world. The area is tough, but is also heartwarming, it is a busy part of town but at the same time you’ll find silence here.”

“Nørrebrogade with a lot of pace, noise and colors contrasts these council estates in the street where the main characters live. The music and the dance in the transvestite club contrasts to the location where the old folks are playing bingo. There are thrift shops, cafés and murky parks. And the people who live at Nørrebro represent much of the world’s population. In collaboration with my photographer, Bastian Schiøtt, I have tried to work out an aesthetic that corresponds to the diversity of life you will find at Nørrebro. I don’t like beautiful images. All footage in my film should preferably support the theme of the film and the psychology of the characters.”

– How do you feel about the result today? – What is good and what is bad?

“There are a couple of scenes where I can see that we did not have very much time. And that irritates me a bit. But when I think about that the movie is made at a very low budget under very difficult circumstances and under a lot of pressure I can only be happy.”

“The four main actors, Casper Castello, Birthe Neumann, Stanislav Sevcik and Peter Aude, did an amazing job. I’m also very pleased with the way the music is a part of the movie. It is kind of similar to The Broken Circle Breakdown by the Belgian director Felix van Groeningen. The protagonist in my film plays music so I had to let music be a part of the theme and story line – otherwise I could just as well have left the music out of the film. It is the same in Groeningen’s film and I was happy to see that.”

”Overall I’m pleased with the fact that I apparently have managed to do a film that is both funny, scary and touching at the same time.”

– What was the most important thing you learned during the making of your film?

“1: Not to limit oneself, 2: Anything has the potential to work in a film, 3: That it is important to trust your own intuition and gut feeling, 4: That your own truth is always very similar to reality.”

– Which Nordic directors inspire you?

“I’m inspired by a lot of directors but especially: Lars von Trier, Anders Thomas Jensen, Michael Noer, Lone Scherfig, Ruben Östlund, Jan Troell, Kay Pollak and Joachim Trier.”

– How would you describe the conditions for making feature films in Nordic countries?

“Making movies in the Nordic countries requires financial support from the different film institutes. It is necessary when you’re making movies in areas where so few people understand the language and we have to be proud of the fact that we are all using our tax money to maintain a system that brings us Danish/Nordic films of a very high quality. On the other hand I would like to see that we open a bit more up for new talents. The statistics show that the future is going to be tough for young filmmakers. Never before has there been educated so many film workers as we see right now, so of course the competition is going to be fierce. It is a bit depressing to think about that the majority of newly educated film workers are going to be unemployed and might have to change career.”

– If you could change one thing about Nordic films, what would it be?

“I would like it to be a must that we see each other’s films here in the Nordic countries. Very few Norwegian and Swedish films get distribution in Danish cinemas, and that’s a shame. I know for fact that the other Nordic countries make great movies that we’ll never see here in Denmark. Maybe it would be possible to introduce some kind of governmental support so we could show Nordic films across borders. I think it is a matter of habituation. The more films we watch from our Nordic neighbors, the more respect we’ll get for these films and then we’ll realize that they are just as good as our own movies.”

– Which actors/film professionals from other Nordic countries would you like to work with?

“Who would not like to work with Mikael Persbrandt? And I wouldn’t say no if the successful producer/director duo Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, who made Kon-tiki and Max Manus, asked me to direct their next project.”

– What is your next film going to be about?

“My next film will be shot here in December and it is based on a novel by the Danish author Merete Pryds Helle, called Oh, Romeo. This novel is a modern take on William Shakespeare’s’ classic drama Romeo and Juliet. To me it is exciting to work with a classic basic story that I can reinterpret in my own cinematic way. The film is set at Nørrebro in modern time. It is a love story between the forensic Julie and the Arabic refugee Rafiq, who is a taxi driver.”

“It’s a story about impossible love encapsulated by the families of these two young lovers. These families represent the two most extreme contradistinctions in Denmark. On the one hand we have Julie’s family where the father represents Dansk Folkeparti in the city council. He is a hardcore racist. On the other hand we have Rafiq’s family who are estranged from the Danish way of living. They are practicing forced marriages and honor-related violence. It is going to be a film that combines social realism and melodrama. It has slowly occurred to me that several of my  previous films consist of this mixture. Obviously, there must be some unconscious layers that fascinate me and drag me in this direction.”

av Jeppe Mørch & Marie Andersen / Filmmagasinet Ekko