Sine Plambech is an anthropologist at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) and Adjunct Assistant Professor at Barnard College, Columbia University. For 15 years, Plambech has worked with migrant societies in Thailand, Nigeria, Italy, and Denmark for her research on migration, human trafficking, the European migrant crisis, sex work migration, and marriage migration. In 2016, Plambech received the prestigious Sapere Aude young elite award from the Danish Research Council.

“Heartbound” will begin screening at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8. The film is co-directed by Janus Metz.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

SP: “Heartbound” is a part love story, part marriage story, and part migrant story that connects a number of lives and two different communities in different areas of the world. The film is set partly in Thy, a small fishing community in Northern Denmark, where about a thousand Thai women are married to Danish men, a trend that started about 25 years ago when a former sex worker from Pattaya married a Thy native. Since then, she has helped local Danish men and Thai women from her village find partners to share their lives with.

The film is a longitudinal cultural study portraying the lives of four of these Thai-Danish couples over 10 years and two continents in a family chronicle about the needs and dreams that unite and separate us across global boundaries.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

SP: When we began this project, we wanted to tell a story of how our subjects’ lives played out over time, as well as from one generation to the next. Migration is seldom chronicled over prolonged periods, nor are love stories.

Further, almost half of the world’s 244 million migrants are women, which I have researched extensively as an anthropologist. Most female migrants travel alone from poor countries and are so-called “care migrants”: women who “provide care” in wealthier countries like Denmark as au pairs, marriage migrants, housekeepers, nurses, babysitters, and sex workers. We wanted to tell their stories.

W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?

SP: I hope that people leaving the theater will realize that for both the women and men in the film, it is about dignity. The women in our film struggled with poverty and made the decision to migrate for financial stability, and the men primarily struggled with loneliness and dreams of finding true love. The impetus of the women’s migration, and thus their objective in marriage is, therefore, escaping poverty and creating opportunities for their children.

The film is about longing and survival, how far mothers will go to support their children, our common need for love and understanding, and the needs of the human spirit. It is, therefore, a universal story about human life. We hope that people will realize that migration is complex across time and geography.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

SP: The logistics of it all! The film was shot both in Thy in Denmark and Isaan in Thailand, and is, in a way, a mirror-image story that shows how destiny in these two diametrically opposite places unfolds. We have traveled back and forth between Thailand and Denmark countless times with our kids, and we’ve become an integrated part of the communities in both places, as the people in the film have become a part of our family’s life.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.

SP: The film was produced with support from The Danish Film Institute, DR, Eurimages, The Swedish Film Institute, Netherlands Film Fund and Production Incentive, Nordisk Film & TV Fund, and VPRO.V.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

SP: I was doing fieldwork and research on migration in Thailand and Denmark as an anthropologist. During this time, I talked with women about how they rarely had opportunities to tell their stories or were portrayed in stereotypical ways. I wanted to tell stories about globalization and migration from the perspective of women.

When I met my co-director, Janus Metz, we started making films together. By merging my background in anthropology with Janus’ focus on cinematic art, we aimed to capture the existential questions that we all face. We have been able to capture events in people’s lives over long periods of time, making it possible for us to record dreams becoming a reality — or trace when life does not go as planned.

W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?

SP: The best advice that I have received is that whenever a camera is rolling, you stay in the room. When making a documentary, you are witnessing people in difficult and awkward situations so it can feel compelling to leave for a while. But to tell the best and most nuanced story, you have to stay in the room.

I would not say that I have received bad advice, but there have been people trying to simplify the stories we have tried to tell. You have to trust that the best story is often complex, and you don’t have to provide people with simple answers to difficult questions. Film as a medium allows for the telling of complex stories with many dimensions.

W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?

SP: Collaborate! And collaborate with other women. Be aware of the obstacles that female filmmakers face in the industry and on set, and try to address them. For example, someone might need to bring their child to set or a meeting, and we should try to accommodate that. As female filmmakers, we need to take responsibility for contributing to creating a better industry for other women to work in.

Another piece of advice is to work with people from other fields. You don’t have to do it all yourself.

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

SP: Andrea Arnold’s “Fish Tank’s” complex portrayal of a young woman inspired me to think about portrayals of women in film. I also love the work of Thai filmmaker Anocha Suwichakornpong, who continuously seeks to tell complex stories from her country in new ways through film.

W&H: Hollywood and the global film industry are in the midst of undergoing a major transformation. What differences have you noticed since the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements launched?

SP: My male colleagues have become much more aware of questions concerning gender parity in the industry. I have seen a much larger focus on sexual harassment, and how women experience being on a film set.

Because of the film industry’s privileged platform, I thoroughly support the movement collaborating with women outside of the industry to show that change is possible in all areas.