Lunch with Det Sjunkne Kloster

Interview with Michael Panduro, director of Det Sjunkne Kloster

 How did you get the inspiration for Det sjunkne kloster?
I was inspired by the sense of longing and hopelessness, that I got from reading the story by Hans Christian Andersen (originally a German folk tale written by Gottschalk). It’s a story of doomed love and an institutional lack of compassion, which features a knight, who pulls his dead lover from a lake in order to be with her for one hour each night. The idea of not getting over the death of your lover seemed rather sad to me, and I kinda said “What if the guy is still doing this 50 years later?”. From there it evolved into a story about bad habits on a more general scale, and how we get stuck in illogical patterns of behaviour.

 Why were you interested in the scarification question?
I like working with grotesque imagery and taking symbolic ideas and realizing them in a very real and physical way. Letting the protagonist (if we can call him that) merge his body with that of a tin soldier serves a couple of different purposes in the film, and mirrors age old rituals of self-mutilation. It’s a way of hardening himself to the outside world. Adding a metal casing to his person, mirroring the armor of a knight, and shielding himself from other people. He also actively weighs himself down (hence, the fishing weight) in a world that’s moving faster and faster. The heavy metal injected directly into his body also relates to the many metals and ridiculous amount of blatantly unhealthy additives we consume each and every day. I hope it’s a scene that marks a profound shift in the story and creates a certain degree of unease in the viewer.

 How did you create the sounds?
We captured as much sound on set as we could, but the rest is purely the very amazing work of sound designer Sune Kaarsberg. We talked a lot about the sound design, which mirrors the biggest overall challenge with the film: How do you make a static film about a man who’s stuck in his daily routines, without making it very very boring. The film has no dialogue and no music, so the sound design carries a lot of weight. I think Sune did an amazing job of measuring everything perfectly and creating all these little details that set the mood.

 What did the frog raised in your mind? Why not choosing another animal?
The film carries a lot of references to fairy tales, and the frog is one of them. Towards the end of the film, you could argue that the man is caught in a fantasy world of his own design (one where there is still hope, that he will be reunited with his dead lover). This shift from reality to a fantasy-reality comes gradually, but the frog acts as a final gateway and catalyst. He literally finds the red thread, that is tied to his lover, through the frog, which is sacrificed in a very unceremoniously manner. The frog also relates to the fact, that this might all be a delusion, when you think about the stories of people licking frogs and getting trippy visions. So, I think the frog has significant weight and is a symbol with many possibilities of interpretation. And that’s why I chose a frog.

 The film dives in surrealism, what were you interested in with this surrealistic part?
Films have a great potential for creating and mixing worlds and realities. I love the idea of pursuing stories and realities where the audience don’t quite know what to expect. It might look like our everyday world, but something is off. A film like this one is very symbolic in nature and works more along the logic of association than classical cause and effect. The small, surrealistic elements allow for this kind of storytelling, where the characters almost act as elements in an installation, more than emotionally motivated people.

 What were the films that have inspired you the most this past year?
Amat Escalante’s The Untame’ was probably my favourite film of the past year. A fantastic mix of realistic drama and corporeal monster movie with great special effects and stunning cinematography. Swiss Army Man was amazing and hugely inspiring in that it’s a film which it shouldn’t be possible to make. But they did it, and as with a lot of the music videos that came before, Daniels proved that they are some of the most exciting filmmakers working today. I also loved Nina Forever, which proved that a simple premise can be used to raise a multitude of associations in terms of both theme and point. Hugely inspiring for someone working on very small budgets like myself.

 If you’ve already been to the Clermont-Ferrand, could you share with us an anecdote or story from the festival. If not, what are your expectations for this edition?
It’s my first time, but I have heard nothing but great things, and I am looking forward to visiting the festival and seeing the film with this crowd.

 Are other releases scheduled?
We have a handful of festival screenings lined up for Det Sjunkne Kloster over the next couple of months, and then we’ll see where it goes from there. I also directed a documentary / concert film coming out in April, which focuses on the Swedish grindcore band Nasum.

Det Sjunkne Kloster is being shown in Lab Competition L2.