Anna Odell is a Swedish conceptual artist and film director. In her 2013 feature debut “The Reunion,” she reenacted a 20-year class reunion, exploring tensions between victims, bullies, and bystanders in school. The film was selected for Critics’ Week at the Venice Film Festival and won a number of awards, among them two Guldbagge Awards, Sweden’s top movie honor, for Best Film and Best Screenplay.
“X&Y” premiered at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival on March 8.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
AO: “X&Y” is a film that explores identity and power, male and female. It is a humorous and twisted play with reality and fiction. The film is an attempt to portray what it really means to be a human being.
“X&Y” is a story about an artist named Anna who tries to explore reality through an art experiment. She invites the famous actor Mikael Persbrandt to collaborate in the project. Together, they aim to deconstruct their public figures by exploring gender roles, character traits, and human truths.
In her attempt to create something sincere and genuine that explores human identity in depth, the artist builds a studio space where she and Mikael can explore each other and themselves.Anna’s and Mikael’s personalities are divided into alter egos depicted by three actors each. Their task is to make certain characteristics, public images, and self-perceptions visible to Anna and Mikael.But what are they actually portraying, and where is the script? During the course of the work, those involved begin to ask themselves the same question as the audience: What happens within the framework of the film, and what is reality?
W&H: What drew you to this story?
AO: My fascination with the alpha male, but also the fear of such a man, drew my interest towards trying to understand that role. When I was younger, I was afraid of men who embraced the alpha male role. As an adult, I have mixed emotions for these men. I admire them but at the same time feel provoked by them.
Lately, I have reflected a lot about why our society allows these men to keep existing and embracing this alpha identity, which Mikael represents as an arrogant, boundless failure that always is forgiven by the public.
Another factor that drew my interest to this story has been the traditional perception and image of the director as the ruler and the actress as his controllable unit that reinforces and redeems his inherent brilliance. Can this view be challenged? What are the boundaries for a female director’s behavior? What images, emotions, and reactions can a boundless female director cause?
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
AO: I want to give rise to further reflections and discussions about men and women, creativity, and what it means to be a human being in the digital era. In this film, I play around with reality and fiction, and I also challenge common prejudices.
In the long run, I hope this film can help people to embrace and adopt a more critical standpoint towards the media in general, and what the media presents as truth. In the film, I am open and honest about the fact that you cannot always know what is real and what is fiction.
I hope that we all can become more open and reflexive towards the fact that we can never for sure know whether what we see and hear in the media is true or just a small part of the truth. We live in an era where we are able to choose between different truths, something I believe is extremely important to be aware of.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
AO: It was quite unexpected, but the biggest challenge was working with the first producer I had when we started the project. He was not the equality-minded person he had claimed to be when we first started to work together.
For me, the key aspect in writing a script is to focus on the research process. I had to work closely with Mikael to get to know him and then develop a script based on our meetings. But the producer thought that I should have written the script after spending only one day with Mikael in the studio.
He also became afraid of the direction the project took, regarding the sexual aspects of it — something that for me felt natural to discover in order to face the alpha male role. Overall, it became a long and painful process making this film before my two new producers took over and made the film I wanted to make possible.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
AO: My first film, “The Reunion,” is considered a masterpiece in Sweden, so it was not so difficult to get 80 percent of the film funded. However, it was thanks to my tough producers that we received the final funding we needed.
Many of the investors were annoyed at my special working process and because of the fact that there was no ready shooting script. But after long negotiations, my producers convinced the Swedish Film Institute, a regional fund, and Swedish public service television to cover up last part of the budget.
W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
AO: I have an education in arts, but haven’t studied film. I was driven toward making films when I was working on “The Reunion,” which initially was supposed to be an artistic video project. To make it, I had planned to attend my old class reunion, but I found out my former classmates had already had the event and did not invite me.
Therefore, when I didn’t have the opportunity to participate in the real reunion, I had to rethink. I realized that I could let actors portray my old classmates and, by doing this, create a horror scenario. I became fond of the idea of investigating reality through actors, and this was the main reason why I started making films.
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
AO: The best advice I have received is to be honest and open with your actors, and as a director, be willing to openly discuss how they and I want to work.
The worst advice came to me during the pre-production of my first film. My assistant director, who at that time was more experienced than I was, told me that I should always acknowledge the actors with positive feedback, even when I think they’ve interpreted the role incorrectly.
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
AO: Listen to your gut feeling, and don’t be afraid to communicate and to try out your ideas with others.
For me, it is extremely important to constantly test my ideas and let others express their opinions about them. When I share my ideas with others, I am more capable of distinguishing trends and patterns in their thoughts, which helps me further develop the ideas.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
AO: Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation,” for her ability to mix playfulness, imagination, and seriousness. Also, Lena Dunham’s television series “Girls,” because she manages to portray women and sexuality in a new way.
W&H: It’s been a little over a year since the reckoning in Hollywood and the global film industry began. What differences have you noticed since the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements launched?
AO: I believe that people in general have become more aware of these issues and also feel more responsible to actively work against them. We see trends where production managers and producers are now bringing policy documents and rules to clarify what behavior is okay on set and what’s not, which I believe is great.
However, despite these positive trends, I think it is even more frightening to see how certain people use this movement to try to save their own skin. Some people are avoiding the fact that they too have been involved in accepting sexual abuse and unacceptable behavior.
But I also find it problematic that many companies decide to simply fire some of these famous men. When it comes to rape and other type of gross abuse, we all agree that it is unacceptable, and it is the perpetrator who bears the responsibility. But we all have a responsibility to react and act when someone crosses the line. These kind of abuses are similar to all kinds of bullying in the sense that they are difficult to practice if those around you react when someone crosses a line.
