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| Sigrid Kandal Husjord in Night Ride |
Often when it comes to the Oscars, it’s the films which are most aggressive in forcing big emotions out of viewers which are the most successful, so it’s always nice to see a film succeed it a different way, with nuance and wit. Although Norwegian short film Night Ride (aka Nattrikken) deals with some serious issues around harassment and the need for people to stand up for each other, it’s just as much its humour and warm-heartedness that will stay with you. Beautifully shot and set on a crisp winter evening, it follows a lone woman, Ebba (played by Sigrid Kandal Hushord) who accidentally steals a tram and doesn’t know how to extricate herself from the situation. When a young trans woman on the tram is subjected to harassment, she feels even more stressed and uncertain, but ultimately plucks up the courage to intervene in an unlikely and delightful way.
Sigrid and two of the other actors – Ola Hoemsnes Sandum, who plays the young woman, and Axel Barø Aasen, who plays the main bully – were joined at a press conference by director Eirik Tveiten and producer Gaute Lid Larssen. Eirik began by talking about the moment when he learned that the film had been shortlisted by the Academy.
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| Waiting for the tram |
“It was kind of unreal,” he says, “because I didn't really grasp it. I'm not sure if I still do. Or really, I can grasp it, but, yeah, I’m kind of overwhelmed. But it's great.”
Where was he when he found out?
“I can't remember actually,” he admits, looking to Gaute. “I guess you remember, because you were the one that told me...”
“I think you were home and sleeping in your bed and I woke you up,” says Gaute.
They discuss how the ideas in the film developed.
“The theme of the film is explore explores the challenges of being different. And the idea came, I was putting together a scenario that I liked. That was, you know, a person on a tram that takes off with a tram. But then I also was looking for the social dimension there where you were you're confronted with harassment, and what do you do? What choices do you make...and what it does to you, to be different?
“I have to say, I've seen it pretty much. You know, being confronted with those kinds of experiences myself, where I've been challenged with what to do, you know, how to be brave enough to go into situations like that. That's what's going on in the heat of the moment, but in a broader sense it's all about having some sort of social orientation in life, I guess, to know when to speak up.”
It was always his intention to keep the audience uncertain as to where the journey would end.
“Taking off with a tram doesn't, you know, it's a semi plot to what, what comes next and I liked that situation. It's kind of a captivating situation when it's funny. It starts off absurd, exciting and surprising. So it catches the audience, and then you don't really know what's going to happen, which is good. I like films that surprise me.”
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| Out of her depth |
“To me, the film is about caring,” says Gaute. “It's a story about the importance of standing up for oneself and for others, and this woman finds herself in a position as the one in charge of the tram, even if she has stolen this tram by accident. And she takes this responsibility. So, I mean, the woman played by Sigrid is in deep trouble, and she takes action against this harassment on board. So I think this story is kind of a solidarity act. And I believe that's an important story to tell the audience today in 2023. “ I think the story is important to bring out to the audience. I think we we hear and we see so many similar situations of different kinds of harassment today. So what can I say? Thank God we're different, and therefore we have to stand up for each other and to fight for everyone's right to be who we are. That's the message of the film in my perspective, and that's the reason why I wanted to work for the film and, of course, with the wonderful director.
“We know each other from, I think, two years ago, so we've been on and off different projects and discussing different scripts and different ideas. And when this idea came up, we started to work on it very seriously.”
“Ebba, she's kind of a shy person that suddenly does things that she surprises herself,” says Sigrid of her part in the film. ”Like, first of all, starting the tram and choosing to take it, and then she ends up in a situation and maybe you're really tightly against dealing with it, but choose to deal with it anyhow. But yeah, she doesn't want to be in that situation from the first place.
“I'm not shy...but maybe I would be able to stand up for someone. I'm not sure because I am not a strong person that could defend myself if someone wants to beat me up or so you know, maybe I'll try to but I don't think it would be that way, honestly.”
Ola says that he doesn’t think his character anticipates the harassment on the tram.
“I think maybe Arielle thinks that it’s quite exciting and cool that a man comes up to her and wants to talk to her after they've been out. And I think she maybe is a bit proud that someone would go up to her and talk to her.”
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| Anger issues |
He’s not trans himself, he says, but because of the way he looks, slender and quite feminine in his features, he’s experienced similar types of harassment.
“It's common for me as well, but not maybe as hard as in the movie because I'm a little bit different than Arielle... I'm more outgoing. I'm a little bit tougher.”
“The first thing I learned in acting school was never judge a character,” says Axelb of playing the bully. “If you only read on the paper, he is obviously a dick, he's a douche. He's got to be able to defend that. And to understand why he does what he does, I had to make a character fable for myself defending this. I actually put in my mind that I had just been dumped by the love of my life and was scared and vulnerable, to be humiliated in public, or humiliated at all, to be left to be alone in the world. And took a chance by approaching Arielle when I saw her. And I think that's where all the aggression comes from. It's kind of more because he's scared and sad. Scared, basically, to relive that worst thing that could ever happen.
“ I remember one of the days on set when a couple of extras, after I think we shot one of the scenes five times, they said ‘Wow, you're so mean.’ I immediately looked at them and like, ‘What do you know how is this? How much this hurts? Everybody’s laughing at me, everybody’s looking at me. And I think, at least for me, as an actor, I have to feel that so strong within myself to be able to be so angry or mean or both at once.”
“The production was placed in Trondheim, which is not where Gaute or I live,” says Eirik. It's quite a journey from from Oslo, but Trondheim is the third largest town in Norway, so there is a very good community. There are a lot of good actors there and a lot of film makers, professionals. So we decided to do our casting there, mainly because we want to local people but also so they all have the same accent. And that was really fortunate because Sigrid, I hadn't met her before, and she come came to the audition and she really blew me away. I thought ‘Wow, that was really impressing!’”
They knew very early that she was the right person to play Ebba, he says, and although the part was not expressly written for a little person, her small stature made the character seem still more courageous.
“So that was a very natural event – a very fortunate thing. The film has become so much better because of that, I think. So I was very happy with all the characters. It took some time for us to find Ola, because that that wasn't easy...once we met, keep in mind that Ola was not not a trained actor. He was 16 at the time, you know. He's pretty impressive.”
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| Ebba makes a decision |
They shot at the end of 2019, he says, with fortunate timing as far as the weather was concerned, and although they were then faced with delays due to the pandemic, they had a good festival run, winning Best Short Narrative at Tribeca.
“That was amazing. I have to say that it was larger than life, because being there at this big festival and receiving that award was was just amazing.”
They went to some pretty amazing lengths to get there, Gaute reveals.
“Sigrid just said that she wasn't very brave. First of all, the character she plays is brave. She's a wonderful woman who stands up and shouts out, and she’s strong.” But there’s more to it. “She's driving the tram. And I mean, she had a few hours learning how to drive. And she had to play her part when she was driving.”
It wasn’t so bad, says Sigrid, because filming at night meant that there was no other traffic to contend with.
“It was such a nice crew, and Eirik is a wonderful director. He made me very comfortable and confident. I didn't feel it was difficult. I think everything was just trusting each other and we were doing it together – even though I was sitting there doing it, we worked together and I always knew that someone was holding my back.”
I note that the film is framed and lit like a fairy tale illustration, and Eirik nods.
“Yeah, yeah, that's a good observation. You know, it's a kind of a Christmas fable. And thanks to the location and the snow and the wonderful cinematographer (Vegard Landsverk), we were able to create this really nice atmosphere and feeling. And also we would do some flickering with the lights, so there is some magic in the air. It's kind of a nice Christmas adventure.”
I ask how he tested out the humour at the writing stage and when working with the actors, to make sure that it was it was working.
“That's kind of a challenging, because you don't really know how it's going to land. You can write something and you don't know how it's going to turn out...We had to do some serious thoughts about how this would affect the audience because if we would hit the wrong notes, it wouldn't be very nice. If you don't take the harassment seriously, it would be like that. That has to be serious, but also it's important to me, too, to keep the humour in and to have the start, which is humorous, and the ending, which is warm and humorous as well, with that part in the middle, and hopefully it worked out I think it did.
“There's a lot of attention to that kind of like anxiety – ‘Will this work?’ – during the the reading. The first thing I think about, making comic scenes humorous, is to take it seriously. And so I don't think at any point I instructed the actors to play up to comedy. I always you know, you have to take the situation seriously and just trust the situation. And your reaction to it will be in the end will be humorous.”
