Read the Jan. 7, 2008 interview in The Desert Sun.
Extended version:
It's not easy to film a story about child abuse and depression, but Danish director Peter Schønau Fog does so with a fresh perspective. Using Erling Jepsen's novel as the source, The Art of Crying (Kunsten at græde i kor) views tragedy through the eyes of a young boy.
"By telling the story that way in first person, it is much easier to let the boy color everything with a different view of the situation," Fog said from Copenhagen. "Therefore it's lighthearted and at times a bit humorous."
Fog's goal was not just to entertain, but he felt a responsibility in getting audiences to the theater. Comedy helped ease that process.
"I feel that it was very important to try to address (this topic) in such a way that people will actually stay in the cinema, and humor is the element that makes it easier to watch the film," he said. "But hopefully they will also see it's something very serious."
Fog is concerned that abuse often happens right under neighbors' noses, but rarely does any one stop the damaging cycle in their own community. Jepsen's book is fairly autobiographical, yet even the author failed to grasp its full significance.
"He would say, 'This is just a story about a normal family with normal problems,' " Fog said.
Fog did not work with Jepsen on the screenplay, as the story was too personal. After five and a half years and two screenwriters, Fog created a story that he was satisfied could translate to film through a refocus of the structure but a dedication to the story.
"My main ambition was to stay true to the tone of the boy," said Fog. "Not me as the filmmaker trying to make fun of things."
In order to authentically capture the story's environment, Fog filmed at a location only a mile from the German border, in an area known as South Jutland. "It is pretty much as far away from Copenhagen as one can get," he said.
The unique location shoot meant that the characters speak in a thick, local dialect that resulted in a unique adjustment. It is the first time that a Danish film was released with Danish subtitles. But Fog felt the dialect to be important, even though international audiences would not be able to discern a difference.
"It was the only way that this could work with such realism," Fog said. "This feeling came out of an actual place in the world."
As did the actors. Though Jesper Asholt, who portrays the depressed father, is a successful actor, most of the cast was regional. The boy through whose eyes the film is told was portrayed by the impressive Jannik Lorenzen, a boy who arrived at the casting call only after his mother bribed him with a trip to McDonald's.
Despite accolades, the film has not gone to Lorenzen's head. "He's still very laid back and cool about the whole thing," said Fog. "He grew up on a farm in that area and wants to become a farmer like his father."
Fog said that he was honest in discussing the characters with Lorenzen and Julie Kolbech (who plays the sister) so that they would understand their motivation. He was also certain to draw a line between the actors and the roles they were playing.
"In order to tell the story, I had to have the children understand what was going on and why the father was doing this," he said. "But there was no puppeteering."
Fog feels that Asholt's character lacks complexity, but notes that all of the characters are seen from the boy's viewpoint. "It's very interesting to try to find (the father) a bit simplified but find a small truth that's understandable," he said.
And he hopes that truths will be revealed beyond the film. "There's kind of an evil circle in parents that have these problems, and they tend to repeat in the next generation," Fog said. "The only thing to stop it is to actually say out loud what's been going on."
In the film that was Denmark's submission to the best foreign language film category of the Academy Awards, Fog's message is received loud and clear.