FILM INTERVIEW: SUSANNE BIER

Finding an Oscar as the Director Seeks 'A Better World'

By: Daniel Schweiger

March 27, 2011

Few directors in any country are speaking a universal film language of transfixing and heartrendingly real human relationships like Danish director Susanne Bier. Such internationally renowned films like Brothers and After the Wedding have reflected her unflinching yet tender eye toward families in crisis--the male protagonists often moved, if not haunted, by time spent in other cultures before bringing their emotional baggage back to the homefront. Bier’s work has touched Hollywood enough to Americanize Brothers, as well as to bring Bier over to the States to capture the anguish and reconciliation of Things We Lost in the Fire.

Now Bier's way with tortured family bonds is indeed making her live In A Better World with Oscar and Golden Globe wins for Best Foreign Language Film. Beyond the reconciliation of broken marriages that usually plays a part in Bier’s work, World powerfully deals with bullying in its awful forms in two different continents, beginning with the brutality that the doctor, Anton (Mikael Persbrandt), tries on men every day in an African refugee camp. But for all of his humanitarianism, Anton’s job has taken him away from his tormented son, Elias (Markus Rygaard), back home. It doesn’t take long for the weak boy to fall under the sway of the far angrier Christian (William Johnk Nielsen), who decides to pay back their victimizers in a way that may spell catastrophe for all concerned. It’s a relentless, chilling build to an explosion that, for all of World’s artfulness, isn’t far removed from Sam Peckinpah’s tense explorations of violence in such films as Straw Dogs. The comparison sits well with Bier, even if she has a far more hopeful worldview than that notorious director.

“I’m a big fan of Peckinpah,” Bier says. “Violence can be justified, especially against the warlord who’s cutting up the pregnant, innocent girls that Anton helps. So you can't forgive or accept everything. But I think our movie clearly says that forgiveness, compassion, and kindness are much more efficient ways of doing something than indulging in violence, hatred, and revenge. But In A Better World also understands the desire for revenge and for using violence in certain situations. But if there’s one horrible thing, I think it’s kids being allowed to think that the world is black and white when they’re growing up. Suddenly they realize that’s not the case, yet accepting that fact doesn't take away from the importance or urge to be a decent, compassionate human being with a strong sense of morality and duty.”

This proves particularly difficult when it comes to the relentless tribal rites of the schoolyard, which World depicts more powerfully for our “civilized” societies which can’t come to terms with the very existence of kid-on-kid cruelty, let alone deal with it. A mother of two teenagers herself, Bier was forced to have one change schools because of the bullying her son faced. “I think bullying is strongly connected with alienation, whether it stems from parents or teachers,” Bier remarks. “There are elements of responsible people not acting accordingly, whether it’s because of their lack of insight or information. But I think that the more we know about each other, the less there is a chance of bullying. This movie is about how to train little boys to become terrorists. If Christian was closer to his father, and that man wasn't so keen on keeping up appearances, then things wouldn’t go as far as they do in our film.”

Like her other pictures, Bier’s Better World is strung together through fate, coincidence, and scenes of high, crying emotion. In fact, you might even say Bier makes some of the best movie soaps around. “I quite like The Days of Our Lives!” Bier laughs. “It goes to the authenticity. I'm an honest person, but I also have a heart for drama. I throw myself at it. Some soap operas are bad because they're so dishonest. Any moment is always a fake. It's pretending to be hurt or angry. Yet if you look at dramas in general, from Greek tragedies to Shakespeare, they’re full of very dramatic coincidences. But because their wording is more complex, it doesn't seem like it. But drama is all about amazing dramatic coincidences, and I love that. Therefore, I can take material that you might describe as being like a soap opera and make it work because of my desire for complete authenticity. It's incredibly important for me. Whenever I direct, I ask myself, "Is this real? Is this honest?" I guess that's why, in general, the performances in my film are also natural.”

Riding high on her deserved Oscar heat for ways with depicting the tragedy and redemption of her fellow Danes, Bier is now set to take a welcome change of pace with the Italian-set comedy, All You Need is Love, which will finally feature a Danish family romancing and laughing alongside Pierce Brosnan. In the meantime, Bier holds no fear if Hollywood takes a similar remake interest for In A Better World that they did with Brothers. “I was very relieved when I watched Brothers, so I must say that I'm not really opposed to remakes,” she says. “If someone wants to remake something I did, I think it's a flattering appreciation that the themes I dealt with in my movie are sufficiently universal to be remade. I can't really speculate on what a Hollywood remake of In A Better World might be like. I’m just happy with the attention it’s gotten from the Golden Globe and the Oscars.”

Sony Pictures Classics' 'In a Better World' opens in Los Angeles on April 1, 2011.

Special thanks for Nancy Bishop and Venice Magazine.