 |
| photo credit Gabor Kotschy |
Marisa Maribal: Dani’s past seems to be strongly associated with the color yellow. It’s exhibited in the decor of her parents’ house, the flowers leading into Hårga, and the pyramid shaped temple. I also noticed blue is a prominent color within the community in terms of artwork and clothing. Can you elaborate on your use of color theory and symbolism within the film?
Henrik Svensson: I did a draft for a color synopsis of the film early on, for how I thought the movie should feel. Like a color score, with the main vibe and the arches of the characters and settings. I of course had one foot in with Goethe, since we already kind of traveled that road in visiting the anthroposophists in Sweden, one foot in with Plutchik, to get some structure in it; but eventually it went more and more freestyle, even if the first draft still really stands when I look at it today. The yellow flowers and the yellow of the house is actually in the script. More and more things along the way made me want to make the yellow and the blue our signs of death — our bad signs; The main reason being it is the colors of the Swedish flag, and I wanted to make the point of how wrong nationalism is. Additionally, of course what the colors ’normally’ represent, symbolically and physically. I wanted to do something that hits you physically on every level. But mostly in a subtle way, work with dynamics, dial it down to save it for where it really hurts.
and
Marisa Maribal: Runes were used throughout the film in both set design and costume design. Can you discuss the specific intention of the symbols, their placement, and meaning within pivotal scenes? For example, the two runes in the maypole and those mentioned on the stone covered in blood. I believe the table was also set up in the shape of a rune as well, but I’m not entirely sure.
Henrik Svensson: You got it. All the meals, except the last one, had the tables set up as runes. More or less everything in the village is either a part of something runic or has something runic to it.
The runes are made-up modifications of symbols mainly from the elder futhark, with ’’our’’ interpretation a bit different. I’m not sure if this is making any sense now, but for example we have a rune for ’’cultivation of art, soul and craft’’ that is very prominent in the film. The entire village is built in that shape, including all the houses, fields and gardens, but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t shine through. Our rune for ’’healing and cure’’ was also a big one.
The stones, and all of the other older stones on the mountain, bare the names of their ’owners’. The runic names for the Hårgans consists of combinations of runes. One to five runes, depending of age. The newborns have one, the elders have five. Each rune stands for different aspects of the bearer, such as temperament and purpose. Dani’s name, that is on her dress, consists of the Hårgan runes for ’’crisis/death’’ and ’’helplessness/innocence.'”
The Hårgan runic alphabet consists of 16 runes. Eight positive ones, four unbalanced ones and four really bad ones.
and
Marisa Maribal: Henrik, is there anything you’d like to specifically talk about or add that I didn’t mention?
Henrik Svensson: While we are on the topic of the honeycomb: an interesting fact that I’m sure maybe only two or three people know about is that Hårga is based on the bee society. The infrastructure with the drones, in our case pilgrims, the youth, the workers, the elders and the queen. How we divided the ages and purposes of the inhabitants. The gatekeepers at the door, the welcome committee, the ’eye’ that IS the very door.
No comments:
Post a Comment