The Norwegian film produced by Nordisk Film Production tells of a mother’s struggle to understand the crisis her daughter is going through, as it affects the entire family. In the main roles are Pia Tjelta, Anders Baasmo Christiansen and newcomer Nora Mathea Øien.

You made the bold decision to tackle the difficult topic of teen mental illness for your very first feature film as full time director. Why?
Tuva Novotny: On a personal level, I felt I lacked basic psychological tools to talk about it in a constructive way, when encountering the topic of mental illness around me. The subject is often dramatised, and romanticised, which isolates those suffering from mental illness, and stigmatises the matter even more. On a general societal level, I feel it is urgent to bring the topic of more openness around mental illness to the public sphere.

How much research did you do and what professional advice did you get?
TN: I wrote the script and knew from day one that I wanted to direct the film with a real time take to be as close as possible to reality and to stay authentic. I contacted the Head of the Psychiatric Emergency Centre at Oslo University Hospital, Ewa Ness who was an important advisor on the script. I wanted to be sure the film would be told in a way that it wouldn’t romanticise mental illness or have a spreading effect.

How did you deal with the challenge of filming in real life in one single take?
TN: I never felt it was that challenging as I’ve worked in theatre and it’s like one big choreography, a real time flow where everyone is told what to do in one long scene. On a dramatical point of view, it’s of course about creating a melody that works throughout the film. The challenging part was perhaps that we hadn’t tried this before. I had done many long takes, but never a full-length feature in one take.

How many takes did you do? TN: Only three! But it’s all about preparation. When you know what you’re doing, you don’t need that many takes.

How did you prepare with Pia Tjelta, Anders Baasmo Christiansen, but mostly with the young non-professional Nora Mathea Øien who plays the central part of Tea?
TN: For me, acting is at its best when you’re in character without thinking of the possibilities to re-do the scene. It’s about being as close as possible to reality. I wanted to put everyone in that situation, where you can’t hide and play a scene again from a different angle. Actually, the most preparation and rehearsing job I did was with the professional actors as they had so much experience and technical knowledge; which sometimes was difficult to let go of; set ideas on how to do things. Actors are often asked to face the light, the camera; here they had to forget about it and concentrate on their characters, their inner emotions. The non-professional girls didn’t have that problem; they simply had to be themselves.

The film still has clear structure, with the drama unfolding from the mother’s point of view, then the medical team…
TN: I’m happy you mention that because I wanted to tell the story from different perspectives to explain for instance how hospital staff deal with such a situation, what language they use, what we can learn from it.

Had you already worked with the key crew members Danish sound designer Peter Albrechtsen, Swedish cinematographer Jonas Alarik, Norwegian production designer Nina Bjerch-Andersen?
TN: I wrote the script without any development support.Then when we got support to develop the project, we went straight to pre-production and as soon as we got greenlit, we started shooting. This means that we had little time to build a new team. In any case, I tend to use people I know and that I’ve worked with before, so I was very happy to collaborate with Peter Albrechtsen, Jonas Alarik (who then both worked with me on Britt-Marie Was Here). Anders Baasmo and Pia Tjelta are also some of my best friends.

The film was a true Scandinavian collaboration. Are you pleased that there is so much more fluidity across the borders and that creators and talents seem to work more easily on a pan-Nordic level today, partly thanks to the TV drama boom?
TN: To me, working across cultural and national borders is extremely positive, as it adds diversity to both work environment and the project. But we still have to focus first on the project itself, and be sure that that fluidity is plausible in the story, otherwise it becomes a kind of gimmick that serves financing more than storytelling.

You’re working in front and behind the camera, on feature film and TV drama. What do you find the most rewarding these days?
TN: For me it’s all about team work, whether it’s behind or in front of a camera. But as an actor, you get a lot from knowing what’s behind a camera and as a director, it’s very useful to know about actors’ processes. anxiety.

How was your experience on the Paramount Pictures’ sci-fi horror Annihilation with an A- list of top female actors and is gender equality high on your agenda?
TN: The film was directed by Alex Garland who cares about artistic freedom, and I believe he chose to shoot the film in the UK for that very reason. Regarding gender equality, I’m not that active on a political standpoint, and I don’t really believe in quotas. But as a woman actor/writer/director I feel naturally close to the subject. By doing what I’m doing, I simply hope that will inspire other girls and women to do the same.

Where are you with the feature adaptation of Fredrik Backman’s best-selling novel Britt-Marie Was Here produced by SF Studios?
TN: We’ve already shot it! I actually shot two films in six months. We’re in the final stage of editing and the film will be released this Christmas in Sweden. It was an amazing experience to work with two of Scandinavia’s biggest film companies Nordisk Film and SF Studios at the same time, on two completely different types of projects.