Writer/Director Sarah Gyllenstierna and Actors Magnus Krepper & Jens Hulten talks to Fest Track about boundaries, structure, details and intention in regards to their film: “Hunters On A White Field” playing the International Narrative Competition at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival in New York, New York.
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00:00This is Tim Wastberg from FestrackConcertTV.
00:29I'm here in New York City for the Tribeca Film Fest.
01:00Can you talk about that irony?
01:02Yeah, I mean, I feel like, you know, Gregor especially has been the one,
01:08the top of the hierarchy, and he's used to setting the rules.
01:12He's very confident in setting rules and he expects people to follow
01:16his word and what he says they should do.
01:18And Henrik, they have that kind of friendship that can happen, right?
01:22Even though they're the same age, they grew up together,
01:25but it's natural for Henrik that Gregor is the leader.
01:27It's not a problem for him.
01:29But Alex, who in the beginning thinks he can sort of use this trip
01:35to wheedle his way in, right, and get up ahead in the career,
01:39as he starts to feel unsupported by Gregor in the face of Henrik's,
01:44you know, constant, you know, very erratic behavior and bad treatment of him,
01:50he feels in conjunction with these feelings that start to open up in him
01:55as they go hunting.
01:56And he starts feeling this success of being the alpha
02:00in terms of, in the context of the hunt.
02:03I think those two things, what we were trying to do
02:07is just to have those things to start to collide
02:09and become very explosive to the point where Alex then gets to feel like,
02:15okay, not only maybe will these guys never allow me totally in or up,
02:22they're going to keep kind of putting me in my place.
02:25But I'm actually a successful hunter.
02:27Let me go and get what's mine kind of thing.
02:30So he gets into a mindset that's different from when he first arrives.
02:37And I don't think, I mean, what we were trying to do
02:39is for all three of these men,
02:41how they start to change throughout the story.
02:44Nothing is really a conscious, on a conscious level.
02:47They're all changing in ways that they don't expect.
02:52They kind of just, and part of that is this sort of bubble that they're in.
02:56We really wanted to create this sense of being there in that.
03:01This is how people can start to do things
03:04that are way beyond the boundaries that we set for ourselves, right?
03:06Crossing the line is easier if we're in a bubble
03:10where nobody is kind of from the outside is saying,
03:13wait, what are you guys doing?
03:15There is nobody there to kind of put a check on them, but themselves.
03:19And they're not very capable of doing that
03:22or willing to do that to themselves.
03:24I mean, even in that moment that we talked about
03:26where Henrik says, are you in?
03:28And Gregor, you could see on his face the way Magnus plays it.
03:32It's like, he's definitely not in,
03:35but he can't, he feels he cannot at that point say no.
03:49And then my last question, but it's for both you, Sarah, and then the guys,
04:09is using the environment, visually as a director,
04:12but using the green and the primal and all that.
04:15But then how they move throughout there,
04:17just like the way the deer and the bucks move through there.
04:20Can you talk about building that?
04:22But then to the guys operating in that,
04:25because the thing is, is that either when Ardalan drops the ground
04:29or you guys are hiding behind,
04:30there's a certain motion that really captures it
04:33that can't be said through words.
04:35So it goes back to the primal.
04:37Sarah, if you could talk about capturing that,
04:38but the importance of the environment and where you guys shot.
04:42And then for Jens and Magnus,
04:45using that to sort of instinctually, maybe in those moments,
04:49play in the hunt and what the hunt means.
04:53So for Sarah and then both Magnus and Jens, please.
04:58I mean, I'll say two things from sort of the early days
05:00when we were working together in our week of rehearsal.
05:04We talked a little bit about,
05:06at one point I had in the script version
05:08about that they would get these shakes
05:10that hunters actually get.
05:12This was from the book.
05:13And I had to talk to some hunters to say,
05:15is this real?
05:15Or I didn't know if there was something the author made up.
05:18But they said, no, absolutely.
05:20There is these, I can't remember the term for them now,
05:23but hunters in the moment when they're about,
05:27when they have a shot,
05:30they often start shaking uncontrollably.
05:32And it's something with the adrenaline, right?
05:34And I even saw, I sent to the actors,
05:36we all looked at YouTube videos
05:38where other hunters have filmed each other
05:40and are having these shakes.
05:42And I talked to very experienced hunters
05:44who said that they got them for years,
05:46even though they hunted regularly.
05:48So that really fascinated me.
05:50And we talked a little bit about using that.
05:52And in the end, in the film now,
05:53we only have a couple of moments,
05:54a couple of scenes where we see that.
05:56But I think that set the stage for us talking about,
05:59look, why is that fascinating?
06:01Well, of course, because it makes you think,
06:03oh, we have to remind ourselves as human, right?
06:05We are actually animals.
06:07And that's the kind of moment
06:09where you really become so clear.
06:10I'm an animal because I cannot with my thought
06:13control my body in this moment.
06:16And having another thing
06:18about having these amazing experienced actors
06:22like Magnus and the Jens and Ardalanes,
06:25they've all worked in the theater also.
06:27So they're really trained.
06:28They have such a command over
06:32their physical language as actors,
06:34which was also amazing.
06:37But in terms of the nature and the setting,
06:39yes, that's super important.
06:41A lot of it is really spelled out in the book.
06:44Of course, you can't get the exact correlations,
06:47but the DP and I spent a lot of time
06:52scouting to really find nature that felt varied
06:55and that felt like different parts of this huge forest
07:00with lots of different kinds of forest in it,
07:03finding the right settings that felt like
07:06it could elevate the mood in different scenes.
07:09That was really important.
07:10And then this thing about like throwing themselves
07:11on the ground and getting down and dirty
07:14and our fantastic makeup artists
07:16who also like transforms them.
07:19I mean, she really helps their transformation, right?
07:22Into kind of wild animals.
07:26That was really important for them.
07:27And I think they can speak to that,
07:29how that felt to really be out there
07:31doing everything for real, so to speak,
07:33in terms of getting down.
08:01Just both the action or reaction,
08:04but just the instinctive nature
08:06of what you guys ended up doing.
08:07I know sometimes it was just in the moment,
08:09but stuff that even surprised you
08:11when you were out there in the forest.
08:14Can you both speak to that as far as that performance?
08:16Because it feels very vital and very visceral.
08:23It's always easy.
08:25I want to say always.
08:27It's not always, but always.
08:32I think if you are in an environment
08:35like the woods or in a factory or whatever,
08:39you get so much help about the surroundings.
08:43So, of course, when we was...
08:44First of all, we lived in the forest there
08:46for one month during the whole period of filming.
08:50I mean, we lived in a little hotel, of course,
08:52but it was very off everything else.
08:55So you adapt the environment,
09:00the silence and the sounds that comes from other stuff
09:05than cars and helicopters and all that,
09:08made up by human beings.
09:10So that helped us.
09:12And also running around in that wood.
09:14I mean, you have to really be careful
09:17where you put your feet.
09:18Otherwise, you break them.
09:20I mean, move around there with a gun
09:23and you get caught up with adrenaline
09:25and you have to watch your step.
09:27And it's mosquitoes and it's like loads of shit
09:30that can actually disturb you.
09:32Then you have to take it in and use it
09:34as you probably would have in the right moments.
09:39So me, it helped a lot, of course.
09:42I suppose that did the same thing
09:44to both Magnus and Ardalan.
09:46Yeah, Magnus, did you want to add anything?
09:49Because of the way things turn out,
09:53there's an essence of...
09:55You can't look at the moral aspect of these men.
10:00You have to look what they do to survive.
10:04And I see that in both of you,
10:07but in your physical sort of reaction
10:11as the time goes on.
10:12Could you talk about that,
10:13finding that in the forest?
10:15Because it's sort of like you came from the dirt
10:17and you go back to the dirt.
10:19Yeah.
10:21No, but it's like John says.
10:23I mean, when you are in the woods like that,
10:29you can really feel the power from the nature.
10:32It's very...
10:35So it helps you out a lot.
10:38As a human being, you become very small very quickly
10:42in this kind of environment.
10:43And you get a lot of energy from it.
10:51And it's always nice to be...
10:56I love to be physical.
11:00I mean, when the environment helps you out,
11:04it's just a blessing.
11:21There's so much in the film
11:43that speaks so much to where we are right now.
11:45I'm glad you say that.
11:47Absolutely.
11:48I'm glad you say that.
11:49And also, there's this quite small level of racism also,
11:59which is also very interesting that...
12:03What do you say, Sarah?
12:04Because there are small hints from Horváth to Alex.
12:12Yeah.
12:14And it doesn't necessarily have to be racism.
12:16It's just normal bullying.
12:18It's normal, yeah.
12:19Bullying.
12:22And then, of course, over the time, it changes and all that.
12:25It's there, like men especially are doing.
12:28Yeah.
12:32What can we use to hold somebody down?
12:37And to maintain power.
12:40Exactly.
12:44That's all.
12:45It's what it is.
12:46Oh, my God.
12:47That adds such a different layer.
12:49It's there.
12:49I wasn't sure if you guys wanted to get into it,
12:51but thank you for addressing it because it's so important too.
12:57It's a part of what are the different aspects,
13:01ways that we can get power for ourselves vis-a-vis somebody else
13:05and control and, yeah, positioning.
13:09Social positioning becomes important for humans,
13:13but also for other animals, right?
13:15I mean, philosophically, we could...
13:19I personally always try to do a parallel between micro and macro.
13:24And this micro world, and if you look at it in macro,
13:28how the world looks is basically the same.
13:32Wow.
13:34Or the whole world is the same behavior, just in a bigger proportion.
13:39Yeah, the individual and the group.
13:41Yeah.
13:42An ant or a giant.
13:44Yeah.
13:45So everything starts with one cell,
13:47and the more cells it gets, it creates a body.
13:50And even more, it creates a path or a city or a world or a continent.
13:58So everything is going in my way of looking at it.
14:03Yeah, it's wonderful you said.
14:15Thank you.