Premiering at the Toronto Film Festival, Danish director and writer Malo Riemann “Untamed” is a touching 1930s drama about a rebellious teen who is forced into an institution, the de facto Women’s Home in Sprouge.
At a time when women’s control over their bodies is under attack, your film has a special resonance. is what happened in kellersk institute Sprouge A widely known island in Denmark?
Among the young people, little is known about the Women’s House in Sprouge and the entire historical context. They are angry because this was not something taught in school. The whole political aspect of sterilization laws is not something people are familiar with. Denmark was actually the first European country to institute eugenics-based sterilization laws, so when Nazi Germany made its laws, they looked at the Danish laws. All this came from trying to control genes in society. It was developed at the same time as the social welfare system, so the concept was that if the state needs to take care of people who cannot take care of themselves, then we need to reduce the number of people who cannot afford it. They take care of themselves.
Everything seems quite accurate historically. What kind of research did you do?
There is a wonderful book by Birgit Kirkebeck on the Women’s Home of Sprouge, in which the magazines analyze the first 18 women admitted to Sprogo. This book was really our bible while Sarah Johnson and I wrote the text. But we also went to the National Archives to read the letters of the doctor and his mistress and some letters from the women. We didn’t shoot the real Sprouge Island, but I’ve been there a few times. There is still one room: the “reflection” room. There are scratch marks on the walls and door. Standing there was really emotional and made me feel very connected to all the women who were there.
There are a number of scenes that may leave a young actress feeling vulnerable. Did you use an intimate coordinator?
I didn’t use an intimate coordinator for the sex scenes, because I wanted the actors to feel safe with me; I didn’t want the connection to go through someone else. I used to work as an actor and did some intimate scenes when I was very young, so I know what it’s like to work with directors who take responsibility and directors who don’t. It was important to me to create a workspace that felt safe and where I was in charge and where we could talk about what we were doing and train with just the three of us in the room. I think it’s very important for a director to take responsibility for these situations and take them seriously, but also somehow embrace the difficulty of it all.
Please talk a little bit about your captain, Emily Kreuer-Koppel.
Emily is amazing. She is very young but understands everything and is not afraid of anything. She wants to be a film director and in a way more a film director than an actress. She absolutely loves making movies, so everything is exciting to her. She had that energy that I wanted Marin to have, but also the emotional depth to go deeper like a character.
What’s next for you?
I am working on two new projects. One is a television series about the witch trials in Denmark in the seventeenth century, which I am working on with Danish writer Olga Raven. The other is a light rom-com about a 50-year-old woman torn between her marriage and courtship.
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