Interview | Danish director dishes on 'Terribly Happy'

"Terribly Happy," Denmark's submission to this year's Academy Awards, follows a disgraced cop from Copenhagen to an out-of-the-way town filled with strange and creepy inhabitants. The film incorporates different genres and styles, including Western and film noir. Its director, Henrik Ruben Genz, sat down with the Daily to talk about his inspirations and his hopes for international viewers.

Allen Irwin: What were your inspirations for the script, which you co-wrote? And what about the "based on real events" title at the beginning of the film? Is that real, or is it just part of the story?

Henrik Ruben Genz: [The story] is actually based on real events. I had initially contacted a childhood friend of mine, Erling Jepsen, about a book of his that I was reading called "The Art of Crying" (2007). I was interested in making it into a film, but it turns out that the rights had already been sold to someone else. He mentioned that he had been working on a Western novel that takes place in the place where we're both from and asked me if I would be interested in that. I said that I was, and so he would send me pages from the book as he was writing it, and I would comment on them. So I didn't so much write as comment.

AI: And the real events?

HG: Yeah, it is actually inspired by some things that happened to some of my friend's relatives and his cousin, who lost her parents at an early age. The policeman, however, is a complete invention.

AI: The film mixes a lot of genres; could you talk a little about where that inspiration comes from?

HG: Well, the first thing is that the kind of prairie landscape where the film takes place is actually only found in that one little part of Denmark where we filmed. Everywhere else is completely different. From the moment that you see the wide shots of the landscape, you are in the Western genre. We wanted to bring out that kind of toughness and cruelness that exists only in this small part of Denmark and offer the Danish people a different perspective on their country. The funny thing was, we had a film crew from Copenhagen who had all been around the world five times, but they had never been there and couldn't believe that it was Denmark. It was really funny. After the film came out, the town where we filmed actually got a lot of traffic from people who wanted to see it for themselves. Later, the film turns into a noir, which is a whole other genre in itself. I found that it was best not to go with the cliché of a genre, but to try to take each one completely seriously and stick to what is true for the characters. That worked the best.

AI: Were there any stylistic or thematic influences from other films or filmmakers?

HG: We never would watch specific films or anything like that, but we would talk about the kind of tone that we wanted. For instance, we would like this scene to have the tone of David Lynch or Hitchcock, but we would never watch a scene and take something from it. You have to be careful because if you take more than tone, it's copying.

AI: It seems like the film has very specific Danish elements in it. Is there anything you would like foreign audiences to get out of it, or things they should know to help them understand it better?

HG: Yeah, it was definitely made for the local Danish audiences. It's partially about Denmark, particularly about some of the things going on in our country right now. We have a lot of refugees from Europe coming into Denmark, and a lot of people here are not very happy with that. Much like the townspeople who are wary of outsiders, the people in power here don't let them adapt and integrate so there is a problem with refugees not having anywhere to go. I think that this idea of intolerance is something that is actually universal, though, so everyone can really relate to it in their own way.

AI: The main character is seen taking pills in the movie, and as it goes on, fantasy and reality seem to become blurred, and there is some ambiguity about what is actually happening. Was any of what happened supposed to be his imagination?

HG: The main thing I tried to do was be realistic to the character. After a certain point, if he feels something, it doesn't matter if it's real or not. The real key is given in the beginning of the film, with the voiceover about the myth of the cow and the bog. This is kind of the contract with the audience, so they know that some things might not be quite reality. What I wanted to achieve was the effect that the main character has of the carpet under his feet being drawn away, and I think that the ambiguity helps that.

AI: The bog outside of town is ever-present in the movie. Could you speak to that as well as to the kind of distrust of authority that the townspeople have?

HG: Yeah, the bog is the place for things that can't be dealt with. In the open country where the movie takes place, everything can be seen, so you need places to hide dirty stuff. Going back to the refugee problem, the camps where they stay are like that; you have children growing up in them for eight to ten years with no rights and no integration. The idea of the bog is something that everyone and everyplace has. For the townspeople, it's the place where they put the things that they don't want outsiders, like the main character, to see.