Ever since the international success of Together (2000), world distributors have been keen to see Lukas Moodysson make an English language film. It took him another eight years and three films. Why now?
After Together, we thought that one day we would probably make an English language film. Then the story of Lilya 4-Ever came up, and that film just had to be in Russian. We made it and were very pleased with it. Lilya took two years of our lives.
Perhaps few people know that, but Lukas's following film A Hole in My Heart was actually meant to be set in the US. But we then decided to make the film quite fast, low-cost and with a small crew, so that didn't fit with the US option.
When the idea of Mammoth emerged, it felt natural to set part of the story in New York and make it in English.
How did you work with Lukas on the making of Mammoth?
It's been a process of a bit more than three years, full time. Lukas and I work closely during the script stage and the editing. During filming, I tend to surround myself with the best production people, and I don't spend so much time on the daily practicalities of the shoot. Instead, each day I watch the daily shoots with the editor Michal Leszczylowski. That gives me an immediate feel for the material. Lukas on the other hand, doesn't want to see any image until the shoot is completed.
So I tend to stay closer to the concept of the film to protect what I regard as the vision of the film. Sometimes, Lukas and I don't agree on its definition and we argue, particularly in the editing room. But fruitful things come out of these sessions as well.
How did you put the financing together for this SEK 70m mega-production?
My ambition was from the beginning to make an English language film on my own conditions, to keep full control of the project. So I was very careful in picking the right financiers and kept all distributors out. Memfis Film is also the biggest single financier of the film. The toughest conversations in a way are always between Lukas and me, not with other financiers. When the financial partners have demands, or questions, then I communicate them (or some of them) to Lukas. I tend to filter things to keep Lukas away from the financial aspect.
The film is a Swedish/German/Danish co-production. In Sweden, we had the Swedish Film Institute, Film i Väst and SVT. Germany is the second most important country for the financing of the film. It was co-produced by Zentropa Berlin, with support from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and Filmförderungsanstalt. In Denmark we had Zentropa/Peter Garde, the Danish Film Institute and TV2 Denmark, plus Nordisk Film & TV Fond, the MEDIA Programme and Eurimages. In total, we had around 12-13 financiers, but the financing set-up was in one way quite simple and not a burden for the project.
Have you done any pre-sales?
With TrustNordisk, we pre-sold around 10-15 countries based on a 20 minute promo that we showed in Cannes last year. But the financing was set up in such a way that we could wait until the finished film to continue with the sales, which we are doing now.
You said the financing set-up was actually quite simple. Perhaps that was partly due to the fact that many of your partners are long time Nordic collaborators...
I do believe in long term partnerships. We've been working with co-producers such as Film i Väst, or SVT, for more than ten years, the same goes with Zentropa. As we know each other so well, there are no major surprises and that allows me to focus on other things such as content.
Many of the key personnel in Mammoth are also long term relations. Editor Michal Leszczylowski, line producer Malte Forssell, set designer Josefin Åsberg, costume designer Denise Östholm and many more. They have been part of nearly every Moodysson film. With the size of Mammoth, I also needed someone who could help me deal with US agents. I found this in Vibeke Windeløv whom I've known a long time. She produced Breaking the Waves, which I executive produced. This time it was the other way round. It's another example of how to nurture long time relationships, in particular within the Nordic region. That's fun.
Tell us about Memfis Film, is your philosophy still based on nurturing directors/writers with a vision?
Memfis produces between one and two feature films per year and co-produces maximum two films per year. We don't want to make more films to be able to stay hands on each project and nurture each director like Lukas, Josef Fares and Maria Blom. This is very time consuming and leaves little time to work on more films. Occasionally, my production partner Anna Anthony and I do take on projects from other filmmakers the way we did with Jesper Ganslandt's debut feature Falkenberg Farewell.
Ten years ago, Memfis helped Sweden come back on the international map of filmmaking thanks to Moodysson and Fares. Now Sweden will have one of its strongest presences ever in Berlin, with Mammoth as its flagship. How do you feel about that?
There is a lot of energy in Swedish film today, with many new production companies with taste and confidence, and new filmmakers. So things look very bright. However, I must also say that there is little dialogue between filmmakers. This is sad and I hope it will change.