Michael Toer and Tobias Lindholm directed together a strong film about the tough life in a Danish prison, with the collaboration of real tough guys on set. We spoke about it with Tobias.
Elevator Pitch
R is a confrontational case study of the power hierarchy in a Danish prison. We follow Rune in his hopeless struggle to survive. It's hardcore, surprising and above all honest.'
Authenticity
'The idea came into being three years ago when a friend of mine was put behind bars for eight years. I was at the film academy at the time and wrote him a lot of letters. What struck me was that he never wanted to go into how he felt. Sometime later I read that the oldest prison in Denmark was going to close and I got the idea for this film. We got permission to film there and asked the people there to take part. Only Pilo Asbæk, who plays Rune, is a professional actor. This is his first big role as we didn't want any known actors in the film.
At least seventy-five people that we cast had direct experience of prison, or had worked as a prison guard. This had a great effect on the authenticity. It's fiction, but everything you see really happened, including the cruel interactions from all sides. Also the way that the drug trade fits into prison life is real. For this I'm really thankful to Roland Moller who played 'The Mason'. He was in prison for years and was our advisor for these sort of practical matters.'
The First Time
'This is our first feature film, but Michael and I have already made a short film with him as director and myself as script writer. The first day filming R was very memorable because most of our actors were real jailbirds and we were really nervous.'
Denmark
'Like some other countries, filmmakers get good opportunities here because there are strong supporting organisations. What is always true: the smaller the budget is to make your film, the easier it is.'
Bright Future
I'm busy writing a script for Thomas Vinterberg and Michal is just back from the Philippines where he was making a documentary. We hope that we can soon make another film together.' (EJ)
R - Michael Noer and Tobias Lindholm
Sat 31st 22.00 LU, Tues 2nd 13.30 PA3, Sat 6th 22.45 PA6