One look at the idyllic fjord-side location and a glance at the filmās title from an English-language-centric perspective and you might assume that Kjersti Steinsboās first feature ā Hevn ā is a pretty drama about those impossibly chic Norwegians. Ā
Look closer: Hevn means ārevengeā in Norwegian; the vertical forests at the waterās edge are more claustrophobic than scenic, and the icy fjords are, ominously, more than a kilometre deep.
Itās into this setting that a woman arrives unannounced, claiming to be a travel writer on a spontaneous assignment. She has no notebook, tape recorder or luggage, just a butcher knife in her handbag. Rebekka (Siren Jorgensen) is here to avenge the rape of her younger sister years before, and to make hotelier Morten (Frode Winther) pay.
The contrast of horrific subject matter with glorious scenery was a purposeful decision on Steinsboās part, though things didnāt go according to plan: the weather, meant to be dark and oppressive, was uncharacteristically sunny.
āAt first we felt like we were shooting a dairy commercial,ā she laughs. āMy DOP (Anna Myking) jokingly said āeven my mom could make this feel beautiful!āā
The end result is perfect, a bright and optimistic start that turns darker as Rebekkaās motives and true identity are slowly revealed.
Steinsbo similarly had to go to a dark place when she was writing the script, based on Ingvar Ambjornsenās novel Doll in the Ceiling.
āI have so much respect for the novelist, it took me some time to write him off, for lack of a better word, and make it my own.ā She wrote in āa small cottage by the seaā by herself. āIām not a sad or dark person, I had to go down to the basement to dig out the black sides of myself.ā
Producer Kristine Knudsen fell in love with the book and sent it to Steinsbo, who initially said no to the project. She imagined that her first feature would be on the lighter side, a bittersweet comedy, āsomething closer to home.ā But she says she couldnāt let go of the main character:
āI love the ambivalenceā¦ sheās a heroine and protagonist, but you sometimes feel she goes too far.ā
Rebekkaās violent intentions change when sheās introduced to Mortenās wife Nina (Maria Bock) and baby Astrid. Nina offers Rebekka both a glass of wine and the clothes off her backā¦ literally. The two generate a fast ā if one-sided ā friendship.
āI wanted to play around with sisterhood,ā says Steinsbo.
After Rebekkaās younger sister dies she doesnāt expect to have another relationship with a woman. The closeness makes Rebekka more manipulative and mean, she says, even as she thinks sheās saving Nina.
āBut she doesnāt do it on Ninaās terms.ā
Europeans and Westerners like to think of themselves as more progressive than people from countries with a more public and pervasive rape culture. Yet, the female characters in Hevn illustrate why women are still reluctant to report abuse: teenaged Saraās (Kine Bortheim Jentoft) father shrugs off his daughterās intuition about Morten; town ātroublemakerā Maya (Helene N. Bergsholm) turns to booze and drugs because no one will believe her.
āI think in Norway we tend to think of ourselves as a great, well-functioning society,ā says Steinsbo, who points to the countryās drug problems and āelderly people rotting away in homesā as counters to that statement.
āThere are so many rapes that are not even reported because girls donāt have the courage toā¦ and very often the punishment doesnāt fit the crime or the abuser is not punished at allā¦ itās a huge problem.ā
Ā The director didnāt have to go far when researching the film to gather stories from rape survivors and their families: āUnfortunately I think we all know people who have experienced these things.ā
The cinematographer, producer, production designer, casting director and many other crew members on the Norway-Canada co-production are women, some of whom Steinsbo has worked with previously. The estrogen-heavy set was not a deliberate decision.
ā(The crew) happen to be talented and they happen to have a vagina,ā she laughs, admitting that at some point she had to bring more men into the mix to even things out.
The male characters in the film, including Morten, bartender Bimbo (Anders Baasmo Christiansen) and town doctor (Trond Espen Seim) have their moments, but itās Jorgensen who shoulders the intensity and overwhelming grief running through the story. The actor conveys much in close shots, often with minimal dialogue.
āSiren has a very interesting face. She can be so ugly, so pretty, so masculine, so feminine,ā says Steinsbo. āShe can switch from soft to hard and warm and cold in an instant.ā
So is Rebekkaās plan for revenge a sign of strength or a crippling weakness? āI think she pretends to be strong but I donāt think this revenge makes her into a better person,ā Steinsbo says.
āI hope sheās happy somewhere but Iām a bit worried for herā¦ I like to think that sheās OK.ā
