Babes and booze - Swedish Film Institute

30
siMon and
the oaKs
lisa ohlin
DIRECTOR
PRODUCTION INFO P. 60
The big
picture
Simon and the Oaks is one of those projects that people
have been talking about for years. It has attracted financial
backing from five countries, and suffered various re-writes and
resignations. Now, at last, director Lisa Ohlin has brought it to
the screen. TExT CHRISTINA HÖGLUND
It was more than 20 years in the pipeline.
Now at last, Simon and the Oaks (Simon
och ekarna) is filmed and finished. After
twelve years of backing from 30 financiers in
five countries, a walk out by one director, rewrites
and all manner of chaos, Lisa Ohlin
has managed to shoot Marianne Fredriksson’s
epic story about the power of art in 52
days. She also somehow managed to squeeze
four seasons into two.
“The snow stayed on the ground for longer
than usual. And there was one major question:
‘Will the oak tree come into leaf?’ Every
day I got a new photo on my iPhone showing
how big the leaves were on the oak tree I
planned to use, and I sat and compared them
to an old oak leaf. ‘It’s too small, far too small,
we’ll have to find a new tree!’ I think just about
every oak expert alive was involved in this
project. Then there were the little boys, who
just kept growing. I was terrified their voices
would break. I noticed now when we were editing
how their voices had got deeper”.
for The firST time in her life, Lisa Ohlin has
moved from relatively small-scale productions
to a truly mammoth project, and it’s
something that has clearly suited her:
“It was a challenge in 2010 to make a film
set in the 1930s. There are so few authentic
environments left, and those that do exist
need to have everything modern removed
from them. Hundreds of extras have to have
clothes from 1939 and be able to move
around naturally in them. All this was further
complicated by the fact that half the film
was shot in other countries. It meant that
three months in advance we had to check
every single prop we needed in a studio in
Hamburg. Take an iron, for example: you
have to find a Swedish one from the 30s. It all
requires so much forward planning. And
“every day I got a
new photo on my
iPhone showing
how big the leaves
were on the oak
tree I planned to
use”
DAN LAUSEN