A film is made in the Faroe Islands approximately every three years. The Faroese director Sakaris Stórá talked to us about his movie The Last Paradise on Earth and what it is like to make a movie in a language that has a very brief history in film.
The Last Paradise on Earth is a film about a young Faroese person Kári, whose life in a small village is beginning to fall apart. The factory he works at is being shut down and his father, friends and the girl he has feelings for are all planning to leave the island in hope for a better life.
The director of the film, Sakaris Stórá, says that the themes of the film are personal to him. He used to work at a fish factory in the Faroe Islands, before it was shut down and many of the people working there moved away.
The script was written by Stórá together with Tommy Oksen and Mads Stegger.
“I have a personal connection to a lot of the themes of the film, so it was great to have someone else to write with and get feedback from. It was very important to us to make a film that resonates with different audiences, so it was important to have someone in the writing team who isn’t from the Faroe Islands.”
Uncharted territory
The dialogue of the film is in Faroese, but Stórá recounts that it was originally written in Danish and then translated to Faroese. It was easier, because there are more examples of film dialogue in Danish. There are barely any films in Faroese so it was a process of trial and error on what kind of dialogue works and what doesn’t. Some of the lines were also crafted and reinvented in rehearsals with the actors.
Stórá estimates that a full length film is made in the Faroe Islands every three years. While making The Last Paradise on Earth Stórá and his crew were part of building the Faroese film tradition. Stórá remebers it being both difficult, but rewarding.
Translating back and forth from Danish to Faroese, trying new things and rehearsing took a long time. According to Stórá the film’s journey from a script to the big screen took around five years.
To many of the actors in the movie, The Last Paradise on Earth was something completely new. Sámal H. Hansen who plays the main character had acted in Stórá’s previous film, but many of the actors were first timers.
The power of silence
The making of the film was an emotional process for Stórá.
”There are some very intense emotions bubbling under the surface throughout the whole film and I think we really felt that when making it. It was kind of surprising how emotional that was. Everything felt really real.
It was important to Stórá that the film shows the different nuances of the lives of the people living in the Faroe Islands and instead of just beautiful landscapes, which the film also has plenty of. The characters of the film are battling with the same difficult emotions and decisions that Stórá has seen around him while living in the Faroe Islands. Is it better to stay or to go?
Silence is very present in the film. The male characters don’t speak about their emotions, which Stórá thinks is a relatable characteristic in Nordic cultures. The silence was also a conscious decision for Stórá while making the film. When he saw the chemistry between the actors he thought that it was enough and cut down on the dialogue.
”I wanted to tell the story with as few words as possible and really rely on the emotions and small moments of interaction between the characters.”
Sakaris Stórá hopes that viewers can reflect on their own lives through the characters and relationships in the film.
Laura Niittynen