07/07/2023 - The Danish director talks about their Teddy-nominated short, centring on a character living in a home for problem girls, as it screens as part of EFP’s Future Frames at Karlovy Vary

Living in a home for problem girls, Milo faces the difficulties of wanting to transition whilst also dealing with the other struggles that their situation puts them in. However, Nicki, one of the workers at the home, provides not only support, but also an identity that Milo can look to emulate. But Milo soon hears rumours that will jeopardise everything.

The Shift, which screened in Generation Kplus at Berlin and garnered a Teddy Award nomination, is unspooling as part of EFP’s Future Frames at Karlovy Vary. Its Danish-born director, Amelie Maria Nielson, was also named as the first-ever recipient of Allwyn and European Film Promotion’s new scholarship to Los Angeles. We spoke to the filmmaker, who graduated from the Danish film school 18Frames in 2022, about identity and representation in their film.

Cineuropa: What was it that made you want to broach the subject of the film?
Amelie Maria Nielson: As a child, I was raised by a single mother. Throughout my childhood, I met several kinds of male figures whom I grew attached to: teachers, football coaches, caretakers. These relationships often left me confused, with a lot of mixed feelings: feelings involving paternal admiration, platonic fascination and infatuation. They were role models who projected something that I myself wanted to be. One thing that always recurred in these relationships was that, at some point, they would end. In many ways, I always considered them cursed. No matter how close and strong these bonds grew, they would never prevail and thus could never give me what I really needed. I wanted to portray these relationships and the grief that follows. Like in my own experience, my main character, Milo, projects the identity of their male caretaker onto themselves. This theme of gender identity becomes important throughout the film.

While the label of “queer film” is apt here, the movie is also the portrait of a person dealing with other issues in their life and circumstances. Did you ever deliberately try to subvert some of the traditional tropes that you can find within such films?
Every kind of queer film is important to the world. At this moment, we see conservative powers getting a lot of support, and queer people all over the world are in danger. That said, it was of great importance to me that the main plot shouldn’t revolve around Milo’s gender identity. Rather, it should be an aspect of their life that they have to deal with. The film isn’t a coming-out story as we know it, but rather gives an insight into a character that is in a state of transit. When a person is going through this, it becomes crucial that the people around them are listening, understanding and accepting.

This also brings the social criticism within the film to the fore. Milo's story takes place in an institution for troubled, maladjusted girls where the sudden absence of the aforementioned support is particularly evident. How does this affect a young, vulnerable person whose well-being is dependent upon a constantly changing system that may even replicate the troubles it was meant to solve?

Was it important to you to avoid a narrative that veers towards a definitive conclusion, and instead give more of a feeling of an ongoing life?
The process of making the film was organic, and it really took shape out of intuition and gut feelings. I wanted to create the feeling of the days floating together, and I chose to use a fragmented, somewhat fast-paced editing technique to create a sense of timelessness and the days overlapping. This sense of time underlines both the emotionality of endless youth and life within an institution. In every scene, we wanted to use a different camera and editing style to visualise Milo’s inner life. For example, we use a handheld camera when Milo and Nicki are together to show how Milo is present in the moment, as opposed to when they are with the rest of the institution, when the frame is still and they feel distant.

How did you find Anna Charlie Zerbib Streitz for the lead?
Actually, I had been picturing Anna in my head even before we started writing the script. I had seen her in another short film, and there was just something about her. The way she expresses so much by doing so little is really fascinating. She is just so alive. I asked her to a casting, and luckily, we clicked instantly. Anna and I have a lot in common, and we could both relate to Milo.