be praised choose A remarkable historical drama about the threat to democracy in a distant place, Quisling: The Last Days , directed by Norwegian chief filmmaker Eric Pope, was screened as a special screening at the Toronto Film Competition Finals A deep impression.
The film tells the story of Norway's notorious Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling, whose name has become synonymous with traitor, spurring intense public debate and becoming the third-biggest Norwegian film of 2024. Feature film co-written by Anna Bach-Wiig and Siv Rajendram Eliassen for a chance to win the Nordic Serial Screenplay Prize worth $17,000 at Presentation of Visionary Collection of TV Series in Gothenburg.
“Quisling” is an in-depth and entertaining attempt to capture what was going on in the advanced mind of a dictatorial leader, Gard Kun, the Norwegian head of state and Nazi collaborator, at the end of World War II. B. Eidsvold, “For Disappearance”) was arrested by the Norwegian police and tried for treason.
Wife Maria Quisling (Lisa Calleherd, “The Immigrant”) defiantly supports her husband and does her best to save his many lives, while the church turns to Pastor Ped Olsen (Ann Des Danielson Lies, “The Worst Man in the World”) made the request. ) serves as his secular advisor, trying to guide him toward reconciliation.
As Poppe emphasized in another interview chooseThe five-part series, commissioned by TV2 Norway, will not be an extended version of the 146-minute film, but a unique take on Quisling's last days, each one further in tone and narrative. The archival material was reduced to a drama and a longer story of the traitor's Ukrainian spouse Maria and Ped Olson's spouse Heidi, performed by Lisa Loving-Consley (“Force Majeure”).
The show is produced by Finn Gjerdrum and Stein B. Kvae for SF Studios' Norwegian banner Paradox, with global sales handled by REinvent.
Forward of the official launch of the Gothenburg Film Competition on January 24th, choose Interview with Again-Wiig and Rajendram Eliassen, award-winners for hit Norwegian TV series Acquitted (2015), Poppe's early award-winning films U-July 22 (2018) and The Immigrant (2022). Common scribes provided common answers.
When did Eric first approach you with the idea for Quisling? What drew you to this venture, conceiving each piece as a unique, five-part series?
Eric mentioned it to us in early 2022 after trying a completely different “quisling” approach. We are immediately drawn to the mystery of this character. What drives a man to betray his person as he did? Is he a true believer or an opportunist? The task of developing a feature and a series at the same time is daunting and we were always skeptical when we came up with the idea, but it really appealed to the architecture geek in us and it turned out to be a very fascinating train.
You have done three projects together with Erik Poppe: “U-July 22”, “The Immigrant” and now “Quisling”. What do you value most about working with him?
In addition to his outstanding qualities as a director, we also respect his humanistic worldview. He has a proven way of uncovering stories that matter and delivering hope. All the missions we did with Eric were the type that you actually don't want to do at one stage because it seems too difficult or too dangerous. In other words, they couldn't refuse.
The main source of inspiration for the screenplay was the diary of Quisling's non-secular advisor Peder Olson. But can you describe the important stages of your analysis, what it involved, and who were the key people who helped you get as close as possible to the historical information?
Indeed, these diaries are more of an inspiration than a basic analysis. The diary is brief, more like a pamphlet of their experiences. We know little or nothing about what the two men actually said to each other, but we do know that Ped's underlying goal was to make Quisling regret his actions in order to save his soul. There is also a symbol that clearly shows that he succeeded. To us, that was important to the story.
The scale of the analysis was huge and we went through every part we could possibly touch on trying to get into Quisling's head. Much has been written about Quisling, but Peder Olsen is not well known to the public. His daughter Liv and grandson Haakon are actually quite useful. Now we also have great help from biographers, historians, and theologians who have extensive experience with Quislings and secular care.
In what ways has the research and analysis of Olson's diary strengthened or changed your view of Quisling?
Quisling introduces himself as an idealist, a misunderstood hero, but the deeper we delve into him, the more we discover he was a very lonely man. A person who seeks energy and management is greater than a person who seeks triggers. In this respect, he reminds us of most of today's authoritarian leaders. As stated before, the diary will not be as detailed, but it does show that Quisling had doubts about the direction of this message. This was new to us and key to our understanding of him. It makes him human, and it makes our story.
Can you walk us through how the structure and tone of the series developed? What are the main challenges you face and pitfalls you want to avoid?
The characteristics are written first, and the fabric that presupposes the characteristics can also become the premise of the collection. The main problem is that the script focuses on a parlor game of two men talking in a cell. Not a very enjoyable TV episode! To make it work, we wanted to open up the universe of the story without giving up the core of the story. We like the collection format, so we don't really want to split the movie into 4 or 5 random projects and hope to find the best one. Still, we need to make use of what we have. The budget was tight, and photo time and actors were limited. Luckily, we do get our hands on the wonderful Lisa Carlehed, who plays Quisling's wife Maria, an amazing asset to the series. Generally speaking, limitations make you more creative, and it works miraculously in the long run.
How did you develop a feature film script into a five-part series and work with Eric Pope on two very different versions?
In fact, it is difficult for everyone to complete two completely different tasks at the same time. Our love for construction and self-discipline actually came into play. We've become aware of the need to maintain a better rhythm with the fabrics specified for the collection. It's very interesting to observe the completely different processes in post-production. The discussion was completely different, more open in a way. We all learned a lot about materials and our labor strategies. Erik, the editor and composer did an incredible job giving the features and collection a completely different tone.
The series focuses on the ideological struggle between Olson, a humanist, and Quisling, an authoritarian far-right politician. What are some ways to create a dynamic conversation with philosophical, political, and New Testament references that are accessible to a large audience?
There's always the danger of going over your audience's head, but we think it's even worse to underestimate your audience. We needed to do some critical digging into spiritual matters and Quisling's personal, do-it-yourself philosophy in order to write the conversation. However, we don't believe that viewers need to know every element. Our two basic characters are both very spiritual and otherworldly men, but what they're saying is still pretty universal, isn't it? We all struggle with issues of guilt and regret, regret and redemption, and it's always interesting to see wise people discussing it, or so we expect!
How did you work with actors Anders Danielsen Lie, Gard B. Eidsvold, Lisa Loven Kongsli and Lisa Carlehed to develop the characters?
Now we are blessed with wonderful actors who often contribute greatly to the outcome. They were all curious and enthusiastic about the material and asked accurate and good questions in the final round. As weird as it sounds, we love getting a long, important email right before a deadline!
Eric Pope mentioned that his purpose in making “Quisling” was to provide the audience with an opportunity to question our world at this moment and consider what is going on in the mind of an authoritarian figure like Putin. Are you satisfied with the response the film and series have received in Norway and among international competition audiences?
It's a cliché, but we do think people have to understand history in order to learn from it. When we started this work, our biggest concern was that it would be treated as an apology story. We want to know, but we don’t want to apologize. Fortunately, we seem to have the ability to avoid this. Hopefully each movie and TV episode will spark some interesting conversations and thoughts.
What do you think of the Nordic TV series at this moment and which one would you choose among the writers of the 5 quality series vying for the best Nordic collection?
Nordic TV series has grown tremendously since we started. There may be a lot of expertise on the market, and we respect the need to tell real stories about real individuals, which is one of the Nordic traits. We are a small market with a lot of activity, and we actually hope that the demand for cross-border cooperation will continue. It is an honor and a shock to be nominated among so many outstanding colleagues.
What's next for you?
If only we knew! There may be a lot of uncertainty within business these days, so there are few positive signs, but we are working on a very exciting political TV series with Paradox and NRK. We even have a few feature films in the pipeline and we hope these darling projects will be funded in the future. We want to challenge ourselves with new genres and new codecs, so don't be shocked if we do something completely different this year!
