The film industry has never been without a film about World War II. From Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan to Dunkirk and The Imitation Game, all films show a different perspective on war, primarily through the eyes of men who go to war. But there aren’t many films that talk about how women sacrificed themselves and how they lived during the war. In Rebecca King’s short film, ElsaWe see a very different story related to World War II. The film chronicles the journey of a Norwegian woman of the same name, who is torn between her feelings for a man and her loyalty to her country. But why is it such an important story? Because the woman fell in love with a man who was a Nazi soldier and took over her country. History has forgotten such stories, but according to reports, between 30,000 and 120,000 women fell in love with German soldiers and were called “German whores.”
In ELSA we see actors Nina Indis She plays the protagonist who falls in love with a Nazi soldier, Christian (Lars Berge). Fans will see the inner turmoil of a woman fighting for her identity. The film Flickers Rhode Island International Film Festival August 2024, a special look at a story that many people have long forgotten. I recently had the opportunity to talk to the director. Rebecca King And actor/co-producer Nina Indis On bringing this story to life on the big screen. Meanwhile, the pair also opened up about how they researched such a sensitive story.
‘Elsa’ official poster (Photo credit: @womenlikeelsa/Instagram)
What inspired you to tackle the subject of a love triangle during the Nazi occupation of Norway, and how did you approach balancing historical accuracy with creative storytelling?
Rebecca King: Oh, that’s a beautiful question. Yes. There are so many World War stories, as you said. It’s the last genre I want to tackle as a filmmaker. It sounds crazy, but I’ve sat in the cinema and felt so frustrated and empty about war stories. Of course, this genre is so exciting because there can be so much excitement and drama surrounding big events and traumas. But I think that’s why this short story is so beautiful, and reading Svetlana Alexievich’s book, it was kind of an epiphany for me. The beauty of storytelling today is that we’re constantly discovering so many stories, so many unknown perspectives, so many women’s perspectives. There are more and more stories in modern films, but there are still so many less World War films, even though there are so many World War stories. So it’s like a huge opportunity to see that there’s something on Earth that counters everything that’s known about that period.
Nina, how did you prepare for this role, playing a character caught in a love triangle during a turbulent time in history?
Nina Indis: Actually, I’ve been doing this role for a long time. I first played Elsa, and I did it in 2015, so nine years ago now, and it was part of our writer, Lizzie Nunnery. It was part of her show, Narvik. And in this show, Elsa is a character, but we don’t really look at her life in detail. We follow two Royal Navy soldiers who fight in the Battle of Narvik. And what we found was that after every show, people in the audience would come up to me and say, “We want to know more about Elsa. What was her life like?” We had never heard of this. We had never heard of this phenomenon. So Lizzie and I approached Rebecca and decided to explore this world. We read a lot of books on the subject, and we tried to find as much information as we could from real stories and testimonies of women who had been treated this way or had experienced this treatment. We also tried to talk to people whose families were in similar situations.
Basically, we read a lot about this issue. Books, articles, master’s degrees, and we found a lot of things that didn’t really give a specific description of how many women had gone through this. Nobody knows exactly. But there are estimates. So we’ve estimated somewhere between 30,000 and 120,000 Norwegian women. But it’s the same in other occupied countries. So I was talking about Elsa’s perspective, trying to understand exactly what you’re talking about. She’s a woman who’s trying to live a purposeful life, who wants to accomplish something in her life, who has a purpose. She wants to help her country. But ultimately, she doesn’t feel like her voice matters. She works in the resistance. She participates in teachers’ protests. But her voice isn’t necessarily heard in her country. By that time, Norway had been occupied for five years, and I think it was trying to understand the psychology of a human being living in a country that’s been occupied for five years and what that does, and the need for connection. There was so much I found in Elsa’s psychology, trying to understand why she did what she did. And, yeah, it’s fascinating.
Nina Windis in a still cut from ‘ELSA’ (Photo credit: London Flair)
What efforts have you made to research the historical context of Norway under Nazi occupation, and what have been the most surprising findings in the process?
Rebecca: We ordered a number of books that deal with this particular perspective. To be honest, there aren’t many women’s stories either. The reason is the tendency. And this is what I found very interesting about Svetlana, who says she’s a woman. I think this is an old thing where women are often not asked about events. Because in general, in a broad sense, they can be more influenced by the emotions of the time than by facts and logistics, and often, you know, dates and things like that, and maybe not have a winning perspective. So often the female voice is not explored, but in fact, the emotions of the time are a valid explanation. So it started in the book, but actually a lot of it was like, you know, why do we have to tell this story now?
I think a lot of it was about asking myself as a woman, like, oh, right, what is our place in society? Why are we attracted to people who are so different? And as I started to be generally antagonistic, I started thinking about those things. Okay, the not-so-interesting way is to find someone physically attractive and be attracted to them. We tried very hard to make the story about attraction not just in a physical sense. Nina and Lars are both attractive people, but we tried very hard not to let that be the story. You know, why do people bond and come together? And we looked at how they connected. They’re both teachers, they’re both Norwegians, and these are two people who have very different flags. So I think that was my question and my reflection on my experience as a woman and why, and the question that I wanted to answer for myself was, why do people form relationships? Do we judge people for having relationships with people of different nationalities or beliefs? Okay. Where do we draw the line?
As someone with Norwegian roots, Nina, this story must feel personal to you. You may have heard more than what is shown in the short film. Did you go back in time and recall specific things your family would have said about that time? And how difficult was it to put that on screen?
Nina: When I started developing this story, I talked to people in the Norwegian industry, producers, storytellers, and asked them why this story had never been on the big screen. Why didn’t there ever get a movie? Well, there’s only one Norwegian movie. But that’s it. You know, Norway makes a lot of war movies, and they’re always or very often about men going to war. So I thought I’d look into that, and what we heard was really interesting. It’s still a taboo subject, and some people don’t feel comfortable talking about it. It’s taboo, like the Nazis, and women’s sexuality. All of that is still taboo. So I’ve heard that people often try to avoid it. I’ve tried to look into my family, my distant relatives, and see if there’s anyone in my family who’s been through something similar. It’s not very open. No one talks about it, and that might mean that there’s no one in my family who’s been through something like that. But what’s interesting is that after the film was made, my aunt contacted me, and my co-producer Victoria had heard of someone who had similar experiences, and my aunt contacted me and said that my grandmother had been labeled a German prostitute, and that it was rude, and that people didn’t talk about it because it was shameful. So I was talking to my aunt recently about it, and she told me what she had been through, and I’m so glad that we can now start a discussion and explore this topic. People are more comfortable talking about it and sharing these things. Back then, people took it to their graves, and no one wanted to talk about it. Now, we’re in a position where we can look back, reflect, and talk about these things without feeling ashamed.
Lars Berghe in a still cut from ‘ELSA’ (Photo credit: London Flair)
Rebecca, can you talk about the visual and stylistic choices you made to capture the mood of the period, and how those choices contribute to the storytelling?
Rebecca: To be honest, I don’t have a lot of experience as a director with a camera, so there’s still a lot of technical stuff that I feel like I’m still growing, but the thing that really started me off with was color. I definitely knew that I was tired of seeing war movies with all this branding and green and stuff. So I worked very closely with our amazing production designer, Lauren Taylor. She’s really sensitive and injects color into the environment. So did our costume designer and our hair and makeup department. And it was similar to when we started looking at paintings with our DOP, Adam Singodia. We looked at a lot of Norwegian painters and artists, and they used a lot of amazing color. I love looking at shapes and the use of the body. And this is one thing I have to point out that I don’t speak Norwegian. So I directed a film that I didn’t know the language for. So we started off in a very physical place, looking at shapes in people. So we started off with a sense of the painting, and that’s where we started off, and color. And that was our priority. Adam and I didn’t really talk that much. We had a short list of how we were going to walk each scene. We had a good idea of blocking, or how we wanted to push the actors. But we actually talked more about light. Our biggest language was seeing the sunlight coming through someone else’s window as something that everyone was dancing and avoiding, falling, just passing them by or brushing shoulders. You know, until the last scene started, it was kind of a constant clean truth where people were coming into the sunlight more and more, and everyone was dancing. So that was the main approach. It was through the pictures and the light.
Elsa It is scheduled to premiere at the Flickers Rhode Island International Film Festival in August 2024.
