We chatted with the Norwegian director living in France Janicke Askevold, who was presenting Solomamma [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Janicke Askevold
scheda film] in competition at the Locarno Film Festival. The film paints the portrait of Edith who’s a single mother but also a woman who’s forced to defend her life choice. 

Cineuropa: Your film never questions the choice Edith has made. But there is some sort of need to normalise this form of parenthood which sits outside of the patriarchal model. Could you tell us a bit more about this?
Janicke Askevold: It was intentional, we decided to go beyond the question of whether or not it’s good to have a child in this way. I talked with a lot of single mothers in Norway, who all want their children to be seen as normal. It’s something that really worries them. I think the criteria around what’s “normal” are changing over time. If you look at films from the ‘70s, Kramer vs. Kramer, for example, you realise just how much the debate around children of divorced parents has evolved. Nowadays, we tend to question the concept of family far more often, and that’s what I find interesting to explore.

It’s a subject which always stirs up debate, especially in countries where conceiving a child via a donor is still illegal.
I think that in these countries where it’s still against the law, viewers might think about the film differently than those in Nordic countries, where people have far more progressive views on these matters. With the debate over the supposed "dangers" of growing up without a father, for example, a number of studies have shown that children raised exclusively by women don’t end up lacking anything at all. With regard to Edith, the protagonist in my film, to begin with she wanted to do the exact opposite of what her mum had done, who never spoke to her daughter about her father. Edith also realises that she’s in the same situation, because she’s raising a child all alone. In any event, I think legalising having children alone is incredibly important, because if it isn’t legal, women will just go looking for a donor in another country. I wanted to convey the message that this is a normal way of conceiving a child and that the latter can be just as happy as other children.

How did you go about creating the film? Did you know the subject well? Do you have friends who’d made this life choice?
As well as the people I know personally, I spent a lot of time carrying out research, speaking with women who’d made this choice in various towns in Norway. I also chatted with doctors and psychologists in order to better understand the subject. Everything that happens in the film is based on reality. I’m fascinated by these women who create communities with other single mothers, online or in real life, who support one another and give each other advice, and even women who decide to share the same donor, just like in my film, so that their children get the chance to grow up together. I find it really interesting and fascinating. It’s a whole new world I discovered while making my film. The entire team got involved in researching the world of single mothers. It was really important for us to respect the women who make this choice and who inspired the film.

The subject-matter explored in the film is complex and delicate, but it’s always full of light-heartedness and playfulness. Where did this tone come from, which is arguably less often associated with Scandinavia?
For my part, I’m Norwegian but I live in France, and I think that these two cultures inspired my film. When I thought about the character of Edith, I didn’t want her to be heroic; she had to be complicated, with qualities and flaws. She has doubts, even though she wants to come across as very strong and independent. She’s a journalist, which is a profession that’s always fascinated me: it involves responsibility but also curiosity, which is central to any investigation.

The way Edith interacts with the donor is also really interesting, because she never tends to flirt. Would you agree?
Exactly. I’m really happy to hear that because that’s a really important factor for me. My lead actress Lisa Loven Kongsli has this quality. She’s incredibly beautiful, but she never uses her charms to get anything, she’s a very straight arrow. As a result, the relationship she forges with the donor in the film is far more interesting. Having chemistry between the two actors, Lisa Loven Kongsli and Herbert Nordrum, and having the audience buy into this, was really important to me.