Weightless [+lire aussi :
critique
interview : Emilie Thalund
fiche film] is an impressive debut by Danish filmmaker Emile Thalund, a story partly based on her own experiences that cuts deep and offers up a beautiful portrait of a young woman who’s going through a great deal. Cineuropa took the chance to speak with her at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, where the film is competing in the New Directors section.

Cineuropa: This is your first feature film. Why did you choose to tell this story?
Emile Thalund: I always wanted to focus on this age, on what it’s like to be a girl at an age when you start to encounter judgment from all around the world about how you look and how you act. And even though it's been many years since I was 15, I feel it's still a place that's very easy for me to access. The story isn’t autobiographical in any way, but it is based on some of my own experiences and my collaborators’ experiences.

You’re offering up an extraordinarily complex and profound portrait of a teenage girl. Was it important for you not to be patronizing or simplistic when developing this character?
We talk a lot about young girls or young people in general, about what they’re like and the way they behave, and we don’t always take them seriously. But I really wanted to take this young woman seriously in all aspects, to make her a whole person and not just talk about her body or her age or gender, but to actually make her a complex person, like all of us are.

You’ve placed this young woman in the very specific setting of a weight loss camp. In an era where body image is so important, social networks seem to put so much pressure on the way we feel about our bodies, especially young people. What made you want to explore this theme?
I think it was always important for me that our main character should have a body that didn't look like the ones you usually see on film. I, myself, grew up with a larger body, and my sister did too; she actually plays the main character’s mother and she was also involved creatively in developing the film. When you’re at that fragile age, if you're being told that you're wrong or that you should fix yourself, it can really scar you. And I wanted to show the world - because the world we're living in is very fat-phobic - that this is a real person, that she’s much more than her body, that we should respect that, and we should honestly just let everyone be who they are. Especially teenage girls, who are under so much pressure in this respect.

So it’s your sister who plays the mother in the opening scene, when she sends the teen to the camp. It’s a beautiful moment that says a lot in a very short space of time. What can you tell me about it?
I think it's so conflicting, because a mother always wants to do what’s best for her child. I don't think you're born hating yourself, you learn it from society. The mum has probably had some tough experiences herself, and she wants to protect her child in the best way that she can. And society feels the need to comment on it. Maybe her family and friends have been commenting on it. So I think the mother is just trying her best to help her daughter. And I think the daughter also wants to go, because she didn't hate herself from the beginning but she's now starting to understand that society sees her as something that needs to be fixed.

Another wonderful thing about the film is how it portrays the many complex relationships Lea forges at the camp, especially the one with Sasha, which has its ups and downs but they always feel real and relatable. How did you develop this aspect of the movie?
I think they’re both complex human beings, because we all are. And we're good, and we're bad, and we're unfair and we give too much of ourselves... And both of them show this in different ways. I think it's very common at that age to not be mature enough to take care of the friendship, or to not yet have really learned how to be a good friend because you're so self-conscious you can almost only see yourself, so you don't really see how much you can hurt other people. And often - which is sad in female relationships at that age – these conflicts involve a boy or a man or something someone else did, which doesn't even have anything to do with them.

And then there’s the dynamic of abuse which develops between Lea and the man overseeing the sport sessions at the summer camp. There’s a dramatic climax in the story that’s masterfully shot and which I imagine was difficult to work through. What can you tell us about it?
I was very nervous during that scene. You don't want to make a film about how young kids aren’t always protected enough, but then end up failing to protect the cast in the process. So we worked hard on finding ways to create a safe space, to communicate while working with an intimacy coordinator who helped create that environment. That scene only took one or two takes to shoot, and that was partly because it was so intense to be involved in it. But both actors were very professional. And I think it went as well as it did because of the work we did around it. It's also about casting the right people to work on your film. So you make sure the environment is safe and that everyone is respecting the scene, that there’s genuine respect and care for one another. So it's much more than just the scene itself.