“One of the truest and most painful depictions of growing up we’ve seen in Norwegian film.” “This is Norwegian film history.” Big words are used to describe 26-year-old Franciska Eliassen’s feature film “The last spring”. It is downright unheard of for a student film that was recorded in a week to be shown in cinemas and to be awarded two prizes at one of the world’s largest film festivals. In the last week, the film has also received high dice rolls from a number of Norwegian film reviewers. For Franciska, this has not primarily been about getting a foot in the door to the film industry. She made the film out of a genuine desire to influence us to take better care of the planet. The environmental activist himself has made some radical choices in his young life to live in harmony with nature – such as living alone in a self-built earthen shack through a full polar winter. – I think I’m lucky to be so engaged, instead of just being numb. But sometimes it feels overwhelming, to say the least, she says. The tribute “The Last Spring” has an apocalyptic warning in it, not just in the title. It addresses the sadness and fear that we are about to destroy the living things around us – and not least what this does to us mentally. In the film, we meet the young sisters Vera and Eira. Big sister Vera (played by Ruby Dagnall) is mentally disintegrating because she has a deep uneasiness about the world’s injustice and ongoing ecological collapse. She is not insane, she is sick with anger, she says herself. BRIGHT: Keira LaHart and Ruby Dagnall have been praised by critics for their acting performances in the roles of the sisters Eira and Vera Photo: Franciska Eliassen The little sister Eira (played by Keira LaHart) becomes a bystander to what happens to Vera, and she does not understand why the older sister becomes more and more alien. After smuggling in the diary, she gradually gains a deeper understanding. “The last spring” was Eliassen’s exam paper at the Film Arts School in Kabelvåg in Lofoten, the same area where the plot has been added. She has held most of the reins herself, and has directed, produced, written the script, edited and created the sound design. Almost for fun, she submitted the unfinished film to the large and renowned film festival in Locarno in Switzerland. A unanimous jury accepted the film and awarded it with two awards. Later, the film was selected to compete for the Bergman Prize at the Gothenburg International Film Festival. PRIZE WINNERS: Franciska Eliassen did most of the work on the film “The Last Spring”, but photography was by Henrik Lande Andersen. Here, the two have just received one of the awards at the Locarno Film Festival 2022. Photo: Privat Beforehand, Franciska was not at all sure whether anyone would benefit from the unconventional film. “It’s really weird”, as she says herself. Yet audiences have come up to her and said this is the truest film they’ve ever seen. A 95-year-old British researcher and climate activist had never before seen a film that managed to so much embrace the love of nature in such a poetic, true and powerful way. When people say that the film is referred to as “true”, it can be written back to the fact that the action is inspired by dramatic events in Franciska’s own life. As a 13-year-old, she experienced that her older sister was admitted to an institution for mental illness. – I wanted to do something that was personal, especially around that feeling when you are young and admire a person, and then you see that there are difficult things there that can be frightening. ACTIVIST: Franciska Eliassen says that the best remedy for environmental depression is to be in activist environments. – There I have met people who are super sensitive, who are able to take the emergency situation inside them. It is an art, she says. Photo: Oddvin Aune / Back to nature In the family’s cabin on an island in the Oslofjord, Franciska serves birch syrup, a sweet drink she has made by draining liquid with a garden hose from one of the trees on the property. In a bowl on the table is fruit she has “dumped”, i.e. found in the shop’s rubbish. – In recent years, I have hardly paid for food, but I still eat like a queen because so much good food is thrown in the trash, she explains. Activism has led Franciska into quite unusual situations. While she lived in Lofoten, she built an earthen hut which became her home through a year and a half of rough Nordic weather. The idea for this was conceived because Franciska wanted to live almost completely without consumption. In addition, she believes it is absurd that we readily accept that someone can own nature. She wanted to “take back” a piece of land, live there herself and give it back for free. Via Vågan municipality, she came into contact with a landowner who gave her the thumbs up to the project. With minimal help and no experience, the then 19-year-old student built a gamme on a hill in the forest, a 40-minute walk from civilization. The job of carrying everything up to the construction site was enormously physically tiring. She built the house all day and did her schoolwork at night. – It was wonderful to live there, but it is also hard work when you are without electricity and without water. I got a big, old wood stove, so luckily it got incredibly warm in there. She talks about a strong and personal relationship with nature in the area, and how she values seeing tiny changes in nature from day to day throughout the year. Now the gamm is available for free to anyone who wants to use it. – It’s a great thing that I can organize nature experiences that make others fall in love with nature too. At the same time, people find it strange that you can stay somewhere without paying for it. – What kind of reactions have you had to this? – “Oi, it’s a bit crazy”, she says and laughs. – My loved ones have become used to me doing strange things. But what I find most interesting is how people have certain expectations of a young woman that don’t match with living in a shack. I think it’s cool that you can be complex as a person. While living alone in the village, she made up thoughts which she read into an audio recorder. This was to be the seed of “The Last Spring”. But the film is also a product of the silence that arose when Franciska had to stay in bed for many months. The months in a dark room The accident in the summer four years ago has shaped how Franciska sees the world around her. She melted her head into the asphalt when she was skateboarding after a car on a remote road on Austvågøy in Lofoten. Playing outside in the bright summer night was replaced by a dark room. For many months she suffered from nausea and dizziness. All of the lights and sounds became very intense. Franciska lay still for several months and was terrified that the condition would not go away. After a year and a half, she was able to defy the migraine attacks and work in front of a screen. Meanwhile, an already strong environmental activism had taken some new and stronger roots. Being away from the world in a dark room for a long time helped change her mindset and make her more radical. Even though she was disconnected, she felt very connected. – While I was lying in the dark room, I listened to the radio news. Now I could not escape from them. All senses were heightened as I heard about forest fires in the Amazon and people fleeing. I wasn’t in that mode where you just shake things off and move on. It was completely silent, and I just thought “what are we doing?” she says. – I could finally take it in. And it was brutal. PRIZE WINNER: Ruby Dagnall in the role of Vera in “The Last Spring”. Dagnall was only 17 years old when she received the Amanda prize for best female acting performance for her role in the film “Rosemarie”. Photo: Franciska Eliassen Franciska has visited most of the well-known environmental protection organizations and has made some major life choices to live in a more sustainable way. She has spent several summers cleaning up plastic waste on the beaches in Lofoten. When she was going to show her film at festivals around Europe, she took the train. (“I’m not dogmatic, but I see it as a fun challenge not to fly,” she says.) She likes to call her film environmentally activist. She wants it to influence how people see the world, even if it’s scary to admit it. – I want more people to realize how lucky we are to be on this earth together. That we are strongly connected, also with nature. If we don’t care, more and more species will die, and it breaks my heart, she says, looking out the window at a critically polluted Oslofjord. ALARM: Franciska Eliassen looks out at the Oslo Fjord from the beach at the family cabin. Pollution has caused a state of emergency to be declared in the fjord, and an amount of billions is being called for to save it. Photo: Oddvin Aune / news With “The last spring”, Franciska wants to address the way most of us have arranged ourselves: surrounded by dead things instead of nature, a life at a high pace where we do not take care of the living around us us. – What the film wants to say is “if we take care of nature, we will also be much better off”. There are ways of living that have much more value than consuming more – such as being present in one’s senses and showing care. In the film, older sister Vera has a desperate anger in her about these themes. Franciska has not. – I’m probably not that angry, I’m more sorry, actually. I don’t think anyone is doing this to be mean. Everyone’s just trying their best, I think. A beautiful nature film After accepting awards in front of an audience of 800 during the film festival in Locarno, the festival director took Franciska by the hand and asked her to promise to continue making films. In the film magazines Montages and Rushprint, she is referred to as “a long-awaited breath of fresh air in the Norwegian film industry” and “a new super talent that we cannot afford to lose”. Most people would probably feel a certain pressure to hear that. At the same time, she does not stress. – Those closest to me know how tired I am of continuing with this film, because it has taken a long time. I’d rather be in nature, put my hands in the soil and not sit in front of a screen for a while. It is hardly surprising that her next film project bears more in the direction of environmental themes than a romantic comedy. One of the plans is a short documentary film from the German forest area Schwarzwald, which stands at an ecological crossroads. Franciska is concerned that climate activists usually appear to be opposed to a lot of things. But what are you actually for, then? What is the vision? This is also a backdrop for the projects she is currently working on. – I see that we continue to destroy our own livelihood, but I think we can and want so much more. I believe in thinking globally but acting locally. Being able to work with nature, not against it, that is true art! CINEMA SHOWING: Franciska Eliassen presents a poster for “The Last Spring”, which is now showing in cinemas in several Norwegian cities. Photo: Oddvin Aune / news Hi! Do you have any thoughts about this matter that you would like to share – or ideas for other stories we should tell? Feel free to send me an email! The rest of news Kultur’s long readings can be found here. Recommended further reading:
ttn-69
The film star who lived in a self-built earthen hut – Culture
