Thomas Vinterberg on Climate Change Miniseries Families Like Ours

When the Syrian Battle broke out in 2011, triggering a wave of refugees to Europe, Thomas Vinterberg felt a surge of empathy in direction of the thousands and thousands of households compelled to flee their properties and search shelter in overseas lands. However when the Oscar-winning director of One other Spherical, The Hunt, and The Celebration noticed the response of many Europeans — usually hostile, generally violent — he started pondering: What would occur if a catastrophe hit nearer to residence and “we were the refugees”?

Greater than a decade later, that “thought experiment” led to Families Like Ours. The miniseries, which premieres on the Venice Movie Competition earlier than heading to TIFF, imagines a close to future the place rising sea ranges drive the federal government of Denmark to evacuate. The whole nation. Turning its six million inhabitants into refugees, compelled to hunt shelter in whichever international locations can have them.

The collection encompasses a who’s who of Danish expertise in its ensemble solid, together with Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Thomas Bo Larsen, David Dencik, Paprika Steen and Magnus Millang. StudioCanal and Zentropa produced the six-part collection, which is able to exit on Denmark’s TV2 in October. StudioCanal is promoting worldwide.

This can be a dystopian story, a bit science fiction even, nevertheless it appears to be a really private one as nicely. The place did the preliminary concept for Families Like Ours come from?

This concept got here up not less than six years again, which was pre-covid and pre-Ukraine conflict. It got here from seeing how we handled folks from Syria coming to Copenhagen. And I wished to make a thought experiment testing human beings from Western society, pondering what would occur if we had been the refugees, if we must say goodbye to the whole lot we love? How a lot resilience may we muster? What number of coping methods can we provide you with? It’s like: Who do you set in your lifeboat should you solely have 4 seats? It’s the psychological questions that hassle me most, these are the backbone of this collection, which is why I didn’t need to present any flooding and pure disaster scenes.

However the actual spark to put in writing this present got here once I was in Paris for work. I’d been dwelling there for a yr, a yr and a half, and I felt tremendous unwelcome. I’d go to the identical cafe day by day they usually nonetheless handled me extremely impolite, like a vacationer. One Sunday, I simply wished to go residence to my household, I used to be lacking my daughters, and I turned occupied with what it will be like if we had been compelled to be separated, like within the movie Brooklyn, in regards to the big immigration from Europe to america [in the 1950s]. And interested by my daughters, I used to be impressed by their concern for the state of the planet and local weather change.

As you say, there aren’t any scenes of pure disaster right here. There’s no catastrophe porn. However did you do any analysis into the science of local weather change or into the opposite components of the story?

We did quite a lot of analysis, not into local weather change however analysis of a special sort. We did analysis into the state of Denmark. If this type of catastrophe occurred right here, what would our Overseas Ministry do? After all, you possibly can’t do analysis in regards to the future as a result of it hasn’t occurred, however we spoke to lots of people, to attempt to think about, how would this nation, this little Shire that I come from, react? And we determined we might react early, forward of the water flooding the nation. We might try to take care of all our residents as a substitute of spending some huge cash attempting to save lots of components of the nation, we might attempt to rescue as many as doable in the very best approach. I additionally talked to individuals who find out about local weather change and we talked about dams and drainage programs, the place the water would come from and the way the state would eliminate it. But it surely’s nonetheless all guessing, even when its specialists guessing. They know one thing goes to occur, however precisely what, precisely what type it would take, even the specialists are nonetheless guessing.

This can be a story about households, which provides it a universality. However additionally it is particularly Danish and I ponder if, politically, Denmark is an attention-grabbing nation to have a look at with this story of mass migration. As a result of Denmark was one of many first international locations in Europe to essentially start to crack down on migration and immigration, virtually setting the sample for the remainder of Europe.

First, I need to say my collection right here is primarily about human beings, with these singular individuals, who all react in another way. Like Rilke says: “there’s no unanimous way of reacting as a human being.” There are thousands and thousands of how of reacting. I’m involved with the bravery of refugees and issues like that. However your query is especially painful to me, it actually places a finger in a wound. As a result of once I grew up in Denmark, we had a really totally different repute. Once I acquired my first awards again with The Celebration, one was in Los Angeles to obtain a Jewish award for the assistance Denmark gave to Jewish refugees [in World War II]. Denmark sneaked folks out [of the German-occupied country] to security in Sweden. That was our society. After which, in 2016, our authorities destroyed that story and have become a rustic that I wasn’t happy with anymore. We created a legislation the place we may confiscate refugees’ jewellery on the border. I assumed that was so removed from humane, I couldn’t consider it. I mentioned publicly I used to be embarrassed by my nation, I received right into a public battle with a Danish journalist due to this. It was a really painful time. There’s an echo of this in Families Like Ours. I feel our nation has moved on from that darkish interval and hopefully, our id will get well sooner or later. However there’s undoubtedly an echo of that in my story, in attempting to reverse this example and say: “Okay, what if we are the refugees?” There’s a component of satisfaction to that as nicely.

Throughout Europe, there’s this concept of a fortress of Europe. The political forces in virtually each nation appear to need to construct partitions to maintain folks out. This concept of a unified, borderless Europe, which nonetheless in some methods exists, is now being very strictly outlined in keeping with who you might be and the place you come from.

But when we speak about fortresses, that is greater than only a native, a European or a Danish phenomenon. It’s extra common than that. Take a look at the fortress of America, the place they’re constructing a wall, not tearing any down. It’s the agenda all over the world. That’s why I discover it attention-grabbing to reverse issues and put the Westerners within the refugee place.

As you mentioned, you prevented cliched catastrophe pictures. What then was probably the most difficult factor for you in taking pictures this?

Properly, it’s a problem now to place this collection in a approach that folks perceive that it’s a human drama. It could be a catastrophe collection, nevertheless it’s a catastrophe in gradual movement. And the present takes place in seven totally different international locations that had been unknown to me. So we did quite a lot of analysis to make the whole lot believable. That was an enormous problem. We did quite a lot of take a look at screenings with audiences, they usually saved asking questions like: “Why are they moving out of the country when there’s no water in the streets?” that type of factor. So we needed to discover methods to tell the viewers that that is how it will be in a well-functioning, Western nation like Denmark. We might know forward of time that the water is coming and we wouldn’t anticipate the flooding to maneuver out. We don’t consider that’s how it will work. We discovered that unrealistic. However having this settlement with the viewers by months and months of analysis to learn how to clarify this was very tough.

Did the analysis prolong to how totally different international locations would react to a flood of Danish refugees?

Sure, however you possibly can by no means say precisely how a rustic reacts, as a result of the one basic factor you possibly can say about human beings is when there’s a disaster, whenever you really feel threatened, there’s a regression. You pull again, you discover your closest folks, you begin defending your self. That creates aggression. You may see that Poland was very pleasant and beneficiant and welcoming to Ukrainian refugees. But when Poland was flooded by foreigners, as it’s in our future world, that will create a disaster and a regression and aggression. [But] there’s additionally quite a lot of generosity to be discovered on this collection. The core of the collection is a lady who sacrifices her personal life, her personal profession and the whole lot, to assist her mother. After which there’s Elias [played by Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt] who crosses a continent to be with a lady that deserted him.

Did you come out of creating this collection roughly hopeful in regards to the future?

Properly, it’s a bit just like the query why can we maintain flying? Why do I maintain flying and shopping for new garments and all that stuff that destroys our planet, understanding that it destroys our planet? However I assume it’s as a result of it’s the very best we will do. This [climate change] is one thing we will’t address, its simply too massive a disaster. So we return to focus on our personal little self and world. I discover that actually attention-grabbing. And there’s a forgiven aspect in that, as a result of that is the very best we will do. It’s not that we don’t care, however that is simply the very best we will do.

Have you ever gone again to that cafe in France and thanked the impolite waiter for uplifting you?

I haven’t, and he would go, he’d most likely simply say: ‘Who the fuck are you?’ and insult me. In French.

Try the trailer for Families Like Ours beneath.