>>PREVIEW
BEOWULF AND GRENDEL
STARRING Gerard Butler and Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson
DIRECTED BY Sturla Gunnarsson
Opens Friday, March 10
Check listings
Speaking on the phone with Beowulf and Grendel director Sturla Gunnarsson, his passion and philosophical approach to what many consider the first Anglo Saxon text is instantly clear. Taking on such a huge project doesn’t seem to daunt the Genie, Gemini and Emmy award-winning director. He is a man with vision, context and clarity.
Filmed in Iceland, the film is visually striking, but its real strength lies in its unapologetic representation of the events that inspired the epic poem.
"It’s a cheeky take on the whole tale," he admits. "It wasn’t our intention to slam Christianity but to re-examine the whole poem," he explains.
He notes the inspiration for the movie came from the tribal way in which it all began, with people gathering around and swapping tales.
"It existed for hundreds of years as an oral tale before it was put to sheepskin," he says. "We wanted to take the poem back to the campfire."
Gunnarsson, who hails from Iceland but now calls Canada home, has a very personal connection to the story.
"For me, it felt like a place where my tribal and my national identity met," he says of filming in the larger than life vistas of his birth country. "That landscape is so potent and powerful. It’s haunted me for as long as I can remember."
There is an obvious parallel to be drawn between the film and the situation in Iraq, and Gunnarsson hints at it with some nervous chuckling during our conversation. When the hero Beowulf arrives in Daneland to rescue the king, he begins to discover he isn’t privy to the whole truth. Gunnarsson is fascinated with how half-truths and ignorance can fuel hatred.
"How did these civil wars start? They began with blood feuds," he says. "It’s a profound human impulse to vilify what’s out there in the dark. It becomes big and monstrous and scary," he explains. "It’s very primal how we make monsters of that of which we are afraid."
He is also keenly aware of the bubbling aggression that is all around us stating that warrior culture is very much on the rise.
His goal was to take the tale out of moral territory into a place more tribal and organic.
"In pagan culture, the story becomes more complex in that Beowulf is a flawed hero and Grendel an interesting villain," he says. "It was our intention to give Grendel human qualities."
There are no wild and crazy digital special effects in the film, giving it a welcome realism and grittiness.
"We wanted everything to be bound by the laws of nature," he says.
At times, the language is earthy and colourful. Gunnarsson chuckles at the question of expletives.
"It’s only been a hundred years since we started cleaning up our language. These words have been around since the 12th century," he says. "The syntax is modern but the words are ancient."
Gunnarsson says he has had some bristling feedback on the movie and isn’t surprised.
"We live in a very judgmental time and people are very certain of their views," he says."The gatekeepers and distributors are frightened of the film. They don’t quite know how to market it," he says."When you’re meeting resistance, you know you’re on the right track."
Gunnarsson is currently completing a miniseries for CBC called Above and Beyond that depicts the story of eight Newfoundland pilots who become unlikely heroes during the Second World War. When asked if he has a hero fixation, he is philosophical.
"You discover things and fall into things you need to explore. I guess this is what I need to explore," he says. |
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