Live a Little [+lee también:
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entrevista: Fanny Ovesen
ficha de la película], world-premiering in the Nordic Competition at the 48th Göteborg Film Festival, is a highly anticipated Scandinavian feature debut. We caught up with its Swedish-born, Norwegian-based director, Fanny Ovesen, who has received regular praise and awards ever since she graduated from film school.

Cineuropa: What made you choose this story for your first feature?
Fanny Ovesen: It’s partly personal, based on something that happened to a friend. I also thought it would be a reasonably inexpensive movie to make, with just a small crew travelling around with an Interrail pass, exploring and filming – sounds perfect, right? By the end, the apparatus had grown: four different countries with four production service offices to deal with, and fairly large crews. So, it’s not quite the slick little guerrilla movie I’d first envisioned.

Did this process make the film more ambitious in form and shape?
Possibly. Had I shot it guerrilla-style, the approach would have been more documentary-like. Additionally, there were some very real issues to deal with. Had we shot without a permit, the cops would have arrived in a second. We shot in Poland, Germany, France and the Czech Republic, and each place had its own procedures. So, you need locals with knowledge. It was very enjoyable. We were a small Scandinavian core group, who did travel by Interrail, and we then interacted with a number of additional local staff. They were great people all around.

The description of Live a Little reads: “On a couch-surfing trip through Europe, Laura wakes up in a guy's bed without any memories of what happened. Triggered into a both destructive and liberating exploration of her own boundaries, she crosses country borders to find her truth.” Along the way, we get a story about males and females equally struggling with their gender roles, equally fallible and equally amiable. It’s quite an empathic and humanistic approach overall. Would you agree?
I would. I struggled to strike the balance between darkness and light. We explore issues like consent, grey areas and boundaries, and some of the feedback I got from the backers aimed to push the story into a classical, very self-destructive abuse narrative. Personally, I wanted a story of growth in sexual identity and the reclaiming of one’s body. It's not too dark, but I still wanted the film to be felt. I have no wish to denigrate anyone in the story or to moralise. Rather, I want them to come across as complex, the men and the women alike. In that respect, yes, it’s a humanistic film.

The main characters are the seemingly wholesome and agreeable Laura, and Alex, who comes across as more free-spirited and frivolous. How did you devise the two?
To a large extent through Embla Ingelman-Sundberg and Aviva Wrede, the two actresses, who improvised their backstory during rehearsals. This made them genuinely human, which I then wrote into the screenplay. My main idea is that Laura really sucks when it comes to setting limits, as she’s always trying to please, but she rarely or never connects with her own needs. It’s the encounter with this man and their night together that triggers her into an uprising against all that’s expected of her. I wanted her best friend to be sort of her opposite, the one who sleeps around, who, unlike Laura, isn’t “girlfriend material”. There’s some Madonna-whore exploration going on here, reflecting on how immensely narrow-minded both of these images are, and that you can very well be both in order to be a complete person.

The theme of friendship is also at the forefront here.
Yes, and if there’s one message that I want this film to convey, it’s: “Let your friend help you if you’re facing hardship – share, don’t hold back.” Laura and Alex’s friendship really forms the backbone of this whole story.

You got your education at the Norwegian Film School, and these days, you live in Oslo. Although both you and the film are primarily Swedish, is there a Norwegian “aesthetic” to be found in Live a Little?
I love Dag Johan Haugerud, and although his style differs from mine, I hope I have his humanistic outlook. Joachim Trier is someone my cinematographer Mattias Pollak and I spoke a lot about during filming. Oslo, August 31st [+lee también:
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entrevista: Joachim Trier
ficha de la película] has a fantastic scene where the main character is sitting in a café and fantasises about the lives of different people. We were inspired by these aesthetics when we were developing Laura’s inner life – how she searches through her fragmented memories and imagines different scenarios from her forgotten night.

Our prime reference, though, has been Andrea Arnold, especially American Honey [+lee también:
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Q&A: Andrea Arnold
ficha de la película]. The feeling of vivacity, the saturated summer colours, and a main character that ends up in various risky situations and at the same time refuses to be a victim. Both Mattias and I love Arnold and her cinematographer, Robbie Ryan.