We interviewed Christian Bonke, director of Hercules Falling [+lire aussi :
critique
interview : Christian Bonke
fiche film], which scooped the Best Film prize in the First Feature Competition at this year’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and deals with a veteran soldier’s PTSD struggles.

Cineuropa: The film blends fiction with reality. Were you thinking about a fully fictional film originally? Or maybe a documentary?
Christian Bonke: When making documentaries, I often write my scripts for the documentary. I am super intrigued by reality, but missing a scene because something happened in the protagonist's life that you couldn't control... I've been dreaming of having one actor within a real environment for years. Initially, I heard about a prison in Thailand where Muay Thai fights are held, and the winners get released. I actually tried to make a film like this there, but it wasn't possible to get it through. You really have to find the right environment to do this, and the rehabilitation centre, in Strynø, really was. Of course, I did also think about the possibility of working on a documentary there, but it's ethically delicate to do a documentary when dealing with fragile people. Nonetheless, some of the scenes are purely documentary. For instance, the scene where the guy is telling the story about his suicidal tendencies, there’s no fiction in that.

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What kind of reactions did putting a famous actor like Dar Salim in a context like that generate? And what about having the film crew there? How did you make it feel comfortable?
I made a production concept where I wanted to divide the crew and the protagonists, because the veterans were staying, living at the centre, so I wanted to create a bubble of their own reality and then have the rest of the crew separated from them. Occasionally we would go and tap their back and say: “Hey, can you come to do this scene?” And we would do it very naturally, I didn't want one of them to be affected by the fictional aspect. They would be in  their own clothing, without make-up, so that they could feel like themselves. Undoubtedly, Dar Salim is a huge star in Denmark, and I wanted him to be a part of the group. Most of the days he stayed with the veterans. It was a huge job for him, and I think they have created very strong bonds. In a way, I don't know if you would call it method acting, but for sure this has affected his performance hugely.

In the research you did, as well as during the shoots, was there anything that you found out about PTSD that surprised you?
I did very thorough research, like I would do on a documentary, and I spoke to so many veterans and military psychologists and psychiatrists and wives and children of veterans. And when I dug into this, I was really shocked by how little we take care of the people that we send to war. Many of them are left by themselves with PTSD. This is not only a systematic problem from the government side, but it's also about masculinity, because a lot of men are too proud to reach out. Recently, we actually received reactions from veterans who saw the film and reached out for the first time, and we're so proud of that accomplishment. It will also be shown in parliament next week, which is amazing, because this way, it's really making footprints on a political level. But what stunned me most about PTSD is that it can turn up immediately after a deployment, but also up to 30 years later. It can just suddenly hit you like a hammer and make everything fall apart, so it's really like living with a ticking bomb under your feet. PTSD can also affect people's lives in many different ways: through depression, but there's also abuse, drugs and alcohol, as well as porn or gaming. So that's also a way of coping, to self-medicate. I can't even imagine what will happen in countries like Ukraine or Palestine, because these traumas can and will affect people for generations.

What do you want people who are directly affected by this to get from your film? And for people who don’t know much about PTSD?
The film started from a very personal perspective because I fell in a deep darkness some years ago and I was super depressed. I reacted towards my own family with aggression in a way where my kids were uncomfortable around me and, to an extent, where I was afraid that I would lose my family. In that process, I didn't reach out to anybody, because the masculine psychology has this problem where we are too proud to reach out for help. For me then, the underlying message of this film is that we all need to take our battles with the scars that we have gotten through life and we have to accept our fragility in order to progress. Regarding the veterans, I noticed that they feel that we are shining a light on their issues, which the government hasn't fully seen. Something seems to be moving in Denmark. I hope that politicians will realise that it's expensive to turn a human being into a soldier, but that it also takes funds to convert a soldier back into a human being.

Any plans for the future? 
These days, I'm editing a documentary, but it's something that I shot a few years back, so it's a longer process. It’s about a nomadic cyclist who has spent 10 years on his bike trying to escape the hamster wheel. It’s a very philosophical film about freedom. But also I've begun writing again and I think I want to pursue this method of just having one or very few actors within an environment.