\n\tEmphasizes the P\u00d6FF website: \u201cDrawing on her own experience, filmmaker Mari Storstein offers rare authenticity \u2014 a love story told not \u2018about\u2019 but by someone who has always been on the inside of such a journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tMarie Flaatten and Niels Skaber star in My First Love, with Jan Gunnar Roise and Silje Breivik also featuring in the ensemble cast from Nordisk Film Production and co-producer Filmbin. Storstein wrote the script with Tomas Myklebost. The producers are Tori Gjendal and Thomas Robsahm, with Nicholas Sando as the co-producer. TrustNordisk is handling sales.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cMy First Love is not directly autobiographical. It is based on stories from many people I know, and it is also based on my own experiences,\u201d Storstein tells THR. \u201cMany elements are taken from my own life, especially the encounters with the barriers Ella faces. As a disabled person, freedom and self-determination are not guaranteed. You have to fight for these things again and again, and that is still a big part of my life. It has been both meaningful and challenging to write a story that is so close and personal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe filmmaker\u2019s 2011 short documentary Letter to Jens looked at the struggle of disabled people for freedom and how the municipality you live in can determine the kind of life you get to live. The doc won the best documentary award at the Norwegian Documentary Film Festival and created public debate.<\/p>\n
\n\tNow, Storstein is taking audiences closer to, even inside, these struggles in a fiction narrative. \u201cAs a documentary filmmaker, I have heard countless stories from people fighting for self-determination and the right to live ordinary lives. I have often been denied permission to film the very moment when injustice occurs. It has been frustrating to know that \u2018this is happening,\u2019 but not be allowed to capture it with a documentary camera. Fiction allowed me to tell a story I have carried with me for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFlaatten and Skaber shine as Ella and Oliver, who immediately feel drawn to each other. For the female star, it is her first acting role, which surprised people who saw the film in Tallinn.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tMy First Love, courtesy of Nordisk Film<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Nordisk Film<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe started the casting process early and developed the script in parallel. We knew we had to search thoroughly for the lead role and kept the process very open. We considered different ages and different genders, and we were prepared to rewrite the script based on who we found,\u201d Storstein recalls. \u201cI remember clearly when I first watched Marie\u2019s casting tape. \u2018There she is,\u2019 I thought. She was so open, engaged, and already had many thoughts about the project. Marie was not chosen only because her own experiences bring authenticity and depth that could not be achieved otherwise. She is a remarkable actor with presence, strength and vulnerability.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFlaatten found out about the film project and decided to go for the role. \u201cI came across an article that said they were searching for actresses for this role, and I thought, \u2018this is interesting,’\u201d the young newcomer tells THR. \u201cI haven\u2019t been doing acting at all before this, so I had to learn how to do it, and my plan was to give it a shot and work so hard that if I was told that I didn\u2019t get the role, I could still be satisfied with my effort. But it went better than I could have even imagined. So I\u2019m really grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe onscreen chemistry between the leads is palpable, so you may think they go way back when watching My First Love. But that is not the case. \u201cWe went to an audition together,\u201d Skaber tells THR. \u201cAnd then we had rehearsals of some scenes, like the intimate scenes and other stuff. So we got to know each other pretty well before we started shooting the film.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAn intimacy coordinator was present at the casting, at the rehearsals, as well as on set for the shooting of all the intimate scenes.<\/p>\n
\n\tSkaber\u2019s shooting schedule started off with some of the most challenging scenes, including a scene in bed with his co-star and another scene for which he had to learn how to play the guitar. \u201cThe first day was for the most intimate scenes,\u201d he recalls. So it was good that I knew Marie, and that our director is very good. It made the whole thing much safer. \u201cAnd on the third day, I think, was a scene where I sang in front of 1,400 people. I was pretty nervous because I\u2019m not a singer. But when I got up there and started, everybody helped out with clapping.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFlaatten also felt comfortable shooting scenes of intimacy. \u201cIt was a very good process, so we both felt safe,\u201d she shares. But for her, the hardest scene was a different one. \u201cThe most difficult scene for me was our breakup,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt was really important to me to do the breakup scene well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tMari Storstein and Marie Flaatten, courtesy of Tori Gjendal<\/p>\n
\n\tThe actress and her director worked together closely to shape Ella and her story. \u201cIt was important for both of us to show Ella as a complete human being,\u201d emphasizes Storstein. \u201cShe can be cool, but she can also be annoying. She is strong and vulnerable, insecure and confident. And she\u2019s in love.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAdds Flaatten: \u201cWe were definitely talking a lot about who Ella is, so it was a real cooperation to sort her out. I\u2019m really glad that I had Mari as a partner in that process. We both have a disability and are using wheelchairs. So based on that, we can both relate to Ella\u2019s situation. But even so, Ella is her own person, and Ella\u2019s story is neither my nor Mari\u2019s story, but it\u2019s based on real events.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tSkaber was thankful for the openness of his onscreen partner to help him understand living with a wheelchair better. \u201cMarie really early on said, \u2018If you have any questions, just ask!\u2019 So I asked questions, and I feel that I know more now and understand and notice things that I wouldn\u2019t really think about at the start of the movie. For example, these stairs over there!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWill audiences get to see more of Flaatten on screen in the future? \u201cI hope so,\u201d she tells THR. \u201cThat\u2019s what I want to do now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAdds Storstein: \u201cI truly hope Marie gets the chance to do more films. If she does not, it will not be because she lacks talent, but because the industry is not yet ready for her. I hope this film inspires more stories with disabled characters, and more roles where disabled people are included not because the story is \u2018about disability,\u2019 but simply because we exist.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFlaatten\u2019s hope for My First Love is also that it will help open more eyes. \u201cIt\u2019s an important movie, because people think they know, but I think you really have to witness it to really understand how it is,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a general problem that the world is not that accessible. But I also think that the movie is so good because it not only focuses on the problems. It\u2019s oriented toward how many possibilities there are, if some adjustments are made.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tConcludes the star: \u201cI think that the most important thing about film is that it can help people realize that we are all human beings, and that we all want the same thing, and that there are a lot of possibilities, if we look for good solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You want to live independently and follow your dreams? Of course, you do. And so does Ella, 19,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":396246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[171,1801,53,185539,184847,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-396245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-international","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-poff","12":"tag-tallinn-black-nights-film-festival","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115591690653456476","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}