The Norwegian family film The Ash Lad: In the Hall of the Mountain King produced by Maipo Film is coming out this Friday in Norway via Nordisk Film. We spoke to the director Mikkel Brænne Sandemose. 

Was it daunting for you to spearhead the first ever screen adaptation of Asbjørnsen & Moe's folk tale?
Mikkel Brænne Sandemose: In a way, but I enjoyed the challenge of bringing to the screen the famous character, making him flesh and blood, and developing his personality, which isn’t done in the fairy tale.

What fascinates you about Norse mythology that was already the universe of your previous film Ragnarok?
MBS: These tales come from the belief that nature contains miracles in a sense. I love the idea of getting the audience to go back to nature. Norse mythology and folk tales are full of inspiring classic stories of good vs evil, individual achievement and bravery. I was keen to bring back the traditional Norwegian storytelling to today’s younger audiences and adults.

The tone of the film is light, playful and humorous. Was it key to give a contemporary feel to the ancient Norwegian folk tale?
MBS: Absolutely. The original tale from the 13-14th century comes from the oral tradition and in the 19th century it was them written down by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe.

The original story was not humorous and had a strong notion of punishment. If you made the wrong choice, your skin would be peeled off, you would end up in a pit with a snake or your ears would be chopped off. Showing this on screen would have been gruesome for the young audience in our target group. However, I tried to retain the realistic feel in the dialogue and in the situations. I wanted the characters to change and grow through the journey. We felt the mix of excitement, thrill and humour would be perfect to create a real family adventure movie.

I guess you must have had plenty of references in mind from other films, such as Shrek, or Tolkien-based The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings…
MBS: Shrek was a reference with its humour as well as Frodo in Lord of the Rings and Bilbo in The Hobbit as characters not particularly heroic at the beginning but who become heroes through their journey of self-discovery. Similarly to Tolkien’s hobbits, Askeladden is a superhero without any special gift but his good heart and common sense. He achieves his goal thanks to the objects he collects on his journey, the lessons he learns, not thanks to some supernatural gift.

The importance of fairy tales and their psychological impact on children have been analysed by many scholars such as Bruno Bettelheim. Do you feel fairy tales are all the more important in today’s chaotic world?
MBS: It was important for me to make this movie because bedtime fairy tales are losing ground to one-dimensional trivial stories that do not touch youngsters the way fairy tales do. Also today, young Norwegians don’t really know the story of Askeladden anymore, the way I did or previous generations did. My goal was to reboot this fairy tale.

Visually how did you create the magical mythical universe? Can you detail your work on the colour scheme, mix of analogue/digital technique to create lush images, and VFX work?
MBS: One of my main goals was to shoot as much as possible on location, to make actors feel the nature, their environment, the light, even if it was adding complexity to the way we shot it. I wanted to avoid green screen and studio work as much as possible, although of course, we had to do that on the more complicated visual scenes. When we were location scouting with my DOP John Christian Rosenlund [The King’s Choice], we had Norwegian painters and illustrators from the 19th century in mind, such as Theodor Kittelsen, Erik Werenskiold, my ancestor Hans Gude and the Swede John Bauer that inspired our work. We wanted to find places that would give a lush feeling, and at the same time we were looking for locations where we felt forest creatures and trolls could live.

The troll is awe-inspiring and beautifully looking. Who created it?
MBS: It was Simon Nyhus from Grimville in Oslo who made a sketch out of the paintings from the artists aforementioned. We discussed his proportions, age, lack of sight so he developed the concept. The rest of the VFX work on the troll was made by Windmill Lane Studios.

How did you proceed with the casting? Was it difficult to find the main actor Vebjørn Enger who plays Askeladden?
MBS: We went through a huge casting process with hundreds of boys. We were looking for an actor with a specific dialect. When I saw Espen, I knew he was Askeladden, with a sense of humour, a great intuition and a way of looking at life in quite the same way. He wasn’t a complete rooky neither as he had done the film The Orheim Company before.

Eili Harboe who plays Princess Kristin, is now well known thanks to Joachim Trier’s Thelma. It’s a fortunate coincidence that she’s in both movies…
MBS: We actually shot our film before she got the role in Thelma. I was very happy for her when she got the part because I knew that would boost her career.

Can you confirm that the film The Ash Lad: In the Hall of the Mountain King is the first instalment of a trilogy?
MBS: Yes. With Maipo Film, we wanted to create a trilogy to make full use of the beautiful scenery and landscapes we found, and to expand on the Ash Lad character and universe. We will start filming the second film in May and bring new elements from the classic Askeladden fairy tale and from other Norwegian folklore and myths that will be inserted in the story.

What will be the main focus for the story?
MBS: In the sequel, written again by Aleksander Kirkwood Brown, Askeladden and Princess Kristin are searching for the legendary Soria Moria castle to save his brothers. The moral will be different. It will explore other themes such as position and power vs true self. I’m already working on the film.