Mads Hedegaard On ‘Stranger,’ Göteborg’s Closing Movie

Danish director Mads Hedegaard needed to invent new languages for the Stone Age epic “Stranger.”

“I’ve a background in documentaries [‘Cannon Arm and the Arcade Quest’], so it needed to really feel actual to the viewers. I used to be like: ‘We’re not going to purchase it if the actors speak in Danish or English,’” he defined to Selection earlier than the movie’s world-premiere at Sweden’s Goteborg, the place it’s the competition’s closing movie. 

“There was a man I knew; he has a PhD in Proto-Indo-European languages. However even these are 2,000 years older than these in our story. We requested him: ‘Are you able to give you new ones?’ Tobias [Søborg] took an previous Siberian tribal language and merged it with historic Mayan. Then he did the identical factor once more, this time utilizing dialects from the world round Turkey. We had a dictionary and a set of grammatical guidelines. Poor actors. They needed to be taught a lot extra than simply their traces,” he recalled. 

“Later, Tobias was additionally on set, serving to with the pronunciations. I feel which may have been the only hardest a part of making the entire thing work, however we have been in it collectively. It was so superb to look at it lastly come to life.”  

Angela Bundalovic, Danica Curcic, Benjamin Ahnstrøm Sharifzadeh, Mari Kiss and Sandor Funtek function within the action-packed story set round 4,000 BC. In it, younger Aathi and her household determine to discover southern Scandinavia: they’re the primary farmers to settle within the space. However when a hunter tribe assaults them, Aathi joins them to outlive.  

“Once we take into consideration the Stone Age, we take into consideration warriors. Her story is extra human: it’s not nearly combating and going to battle. It’s additionally about society and passing issues on.”   

Produced by Andreas Hjortdal, it’s offered by REinvent Worldwide Gross sales, which has shred in excluisvity a poster with Selection. 

Hedegaard and his staff talked about Mel Gibson’s “Apocalypto” and “The Revenant,” however quickly they realized they have been getting into unknown land – similar to their protagonists. 

“There aren’t that many movies set within the Stone Age. We needed to give you all the pieces ourselves. There was loads of analysis concerned. We talked to prehistoric specialists about probably the most basic items: ‘How did their axe and garments look? How did they construct their homes?”  

Regardless of chasing authenticity, the world he’s exhibiting, with its raging fires and people who find themselves afraid of “the others,” of change and of progress, appears surprisingly – and sadly – acquainted.  

“We predict that folks within the Stone Age lived in caves and went round with their golf equipment, that’s about it. That they have been ‘animalistic.’ However they’d notions of jealousy and hate, all these items we all know solely too properly, and have been simply as trendy as we’re right now, aside from our expertise. Some say that Egypt or Historic Greece have been the cradles of civilization – I might argue it was that point. That is the place it began. The concept of possession, of land, all the pieces our society is predicated on,” he famous. 

“So did local weather change, you may argue, as folks began slicing down bushes and burning forests to make room for his or her rising fields. It’s a narrative that goes round in circles. It began again then but it surely’s principally the identical. We haven’t turn out to be any wiser.” 

As a director, Hedegaard has by no means been on a “actual” set earlier than, he joked.   

“You come from a documentary and immediately you’re standing in a Hungarian forest, managing a crew of 100 folks. It was fairly difficult, however we have been making an attempt one thing new: How enjoyable is that?” 

Nonetheless, regardless of the size, the story at all times comes first.   

“I really like world-building. I might like to do it once more, however sure, it at all times comes right down to the story. To me, ‘Stranger’ is principally about folks assembly folks. We will do it with respect, or we are able to do it with prejudice. I don’t wish to faux I do know what’s proper and what’s unsuitable, however hopefully this movie could make us give it some thought.”