How do you find yourself? Saoirse Ronan as Rona in “The Outrun”
Foto: Sudiocanal/ Natalie Seery
Ms. Fingscheidt, how Did you become aware of the story “The Outrun” by Amy Liptrot?
I was sent the book by our producer Sarah Brocklehurst. By the time it came to me, Saoirse Ronan had already been hired as the lead actress. That means I’ve already read the book with her as the main character in my imagination, and that was of course a really nice experience.
So it was the producer who brought together three women for this project: she as the director, the actress Saoirse Ronan and the writer of the book, Amy Liptrot.
Exactly. Sarah Brocklehurst had read the book and secured the rights. Saoirse, in turn, was made aware of the book by her co-producer and partner Jack Lowden and researched who had the rights. That’s how the two found each other. They then asked me. And that is of course a gift for every filmmaker.
Interview
Nora Fingscheidt, a German film director and screenwriter born in Braunschweig in 1983, has already gained attention with her short films. In 2017 she won the Max Ophüls Main Prize for her documentary film “Without This World”. Two years later, her first feature film, “System Sprenger,” was awarded the Alfred Bauer Prize at the Berlinale. Your new film “The Outrun” celebrated its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah; It will also be shown at the Berlinale in February.
In the memoir “The Outrun,” Amy Liptrot talks about returning to her birthplace, the Scottish Orkney Islands, to deal with her alcohol problem to get under control. What was moving for you about this woman or this rehab story?
What I found so great about the book was, on the one hand, the brutal honesty with which she describes her addiction, what a physical self-destruction it is. And on the other hand, I was fascinated by her personality: an intelligent, interesting woman who thinks about the world, about the universe, about nature. And during the healing process she slowly reconnects with her roots and with the place she always wanted to get away from. So it was this story of a young woman who grows up at the end of the world, on a small island, and desperately wants to go to the big city. But in the big city she loses everything and her life collapses. Then she has to go back to the exact place she never wanted to be again to find healing. I thought that was so beautiful. It’s a story about a woman and an island.
You co-wrote the script with Amy Liptrot and developed the character “Rona.” Could Amy then see herself in this character?
Yes totally. My instinct after reading the book told me that we need to find a name for the character in order to create a creative distance. The three of us zoomed and then Amy suggested Rona. This is the name of a Scottish island that lies beyond the horizon. Rona also sounds pretty similar to Ronan, Saoirse’s last name. At the same time, the name Nora appears in Rona if you rearrange the letters. So we thought, that’s wonderful – and so the three of us basically created this character, which is an independent one, but of course still a reflection of Amy’s life and of her.
How long did you work on this film?
Three years. We filmed several times. Nature plays a big role in the film. We knew we wanted to be there when the lambs were born. They are born in April. And we wanted to film the birds when they were breeding in the rocky cliffs. So we had to go back in June. We also wanted to have seals in our film. So we had to go there before they moved on in the fall. We also needed winter pictures. We basically had to adapt our entire shooting schedule to the natural conditions. We had the main shoot, six weeks, in the summer. We started in London, then went up to Edinburgh, finally on to Orkney on the main island of Orkney Mainland, and the last three weeks we shot on Poppy. This is this very small island where Rona spends a winter alone.
The film is poetic, visually powerful, is symbolic, but also very real. How did you manage to maintain this balance between the symbolic and the real?
The film is a dance between fiction and reality. We experimented a lot. The film is told on three levels: There is the Orkney level, the London level and then the so-called nerd level. The book is like a collection of diary entries: Amy’s thoughts about the world, the universe, nature, her preoccupation with all the details, the flight radar, for example. So everything you do alone in a small hut for two years when you’re trying to somehow cope with life sober. We used that as the basis for this nerd layer. We said to ourselves: Okay, London has this one aesthetic and Orkney has the other, and the nerd layer just does what they want, they’re totally free. It’s almost as endless as your imagination.
Do you think that the character of Rona is also such a system buster?
Ha! Somehow. I’m fascinated by characters who have to fight the biggest battle with their own demons. I’m not so much interested in the fight of the noble hero against the evil outside, but I find it exciting to tell characters who are going through an inner conflict. And that’s why Benni from “System Sprenger” and Rona from “The Outrun” and also Ruth Slater from “The Unforgivable” somehow have something in common: They are completely different characters, but they all struggle with their own demons.
What do you think of the Sundance festival?
This is my first time at Sundance, and I had no idea at all. Of course I knew the festival and especially the films. But I’m totally fascinated that this festival is taking place here in a snowy place. There are hordes of cinephiles everywhere and this creative, bubbling energy can be felt everywhere. And of course that’s beautiful, just great.
what is from your perspective the difference between the Sundance Festival and the Berlinale?
Oh, that’s hard to say. Of course, I have known the Berlinale for much longer. I started as an intern at the Berlinale. I’ve been to the Berlinale probably 15 times. And it was a huge dream for me to have a film of my own. This is my first time at the Sundance Festival. The biggest difference is that this is a tiny little place, a ski resort, where we all live in small chalets, surrounded by snow. The Berlinale, on the other hand, takes place in a big city.
How did you decide to show the world premiere of your film at Sundance?
That was a joint decision with the producers and global sales. Saoirse Ronan has a personal connection to the Sundance festival. She’s been here a lot, and we feel like it’s the right place for this film to have its world premiere. We are totally grateful that we are able to show the film in the “Panorama” section in Berlin.
This also means you now have two types of audience.
Exactly.
Did you always want to be a director?
Yes, yes. To be honest, this was a dream of mine when I was a teenager. I always loved watching films, banal things. At some point I saw “Titanic” and thought to myself: We have to make this film again, Jack has to survive! I asked myself: Who made this decision that he had to die?! Of course, in retrospect I know the film wouldn’t have worked at all if it had survived. But that was such an aha moment for me; I was maybe ten or eleven years old and thought for the first time that there were people who had to make this decision.
Nobody in my family does anything with film or art. It has been a very long journey for me to get to where I am now. I started with short films that slowly got longer and longer. Then I was accepted into film school. And that’s where I met very important, creative partners.
How would you have filmed “Titanic”?
(Laughs heartily) My eleven-year-old self would have let Jack survive. How would I do it now? I probably wouldn’t change that much.
Become a member of the nd.Genossenschaft!
Since January 1, 2022, the »nd« will be published as an independent left-wing newspaper owned by the staff and readers. Be there and support media diversity and visible left-wing positions as a cooperative member. Fill out the membership form now.
More information on www.dasnd.de/genossenschaft
judi bola sbobet link sbobet judi bola