FNC opener explores the harsh expanse of the Arctic
Quebec director Kim Nguyen’s latest movie, which opens the Festival du nouveau cinéma, takes us to the harsh expanse of the Arctic — an extreme landscape that reflects the emotional isolation of its central characters. As T’Cha Dunlevy discovers, Two Love
Tatiana Maslany experienced culture shock when she got to Cannes in May and met up with Dane DeHaan and Kim Nguyen, co-star and director, respectively, of Two Lovers and a Bear. Nguyen’s bruised romance is set in the sprawling, snow-covered expanse of the Arctic — a world away from the Cannes Croisette.
“It was so weird to me to be there,” Maslany said, sitting with DeHaan at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, less than a week before winning the Emmy for best actress for her multi-faceted performance in the TV show Orphan Black.
“The last time I had seen Dane and Kim, we were all in snowsuits and it was -40. Then suddenly we’re in Cannes. I thought, ‘This is weird, and cool.’”
Since premièring as part of Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, Nguyen’s film has been slowly making its way home. On Wednesday, Two Lovers and a Bear opens the 45th Festival du nouveau cinéma (FNC) before hitting theatres two days later. The FNC will be bookended by Arctic adventures, closing with Zacharias Kunuk’s Maliglutit (Searchers), shot in Igloolik, Nunavut.
Two Lovers and a Bear was also filmed in Nunavut, in Iqaluit. Location is everything for Nguyen, whose 2012 child soldier drama Rebelle (which premièred at the Berlin Film Festival and was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign-language film) was shot in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Based on a short story by Kanuk jacket founder Louis Grenier, Two Lovers and a Bear required an extreme environment to reflect the emotional isolation of its central characters, according to Nguyen. Various locales were considered, including Puvirnituq and Kuujjuaq; but the search kept leading further north.
“The only thing that was clear is that it had to be beyond the treeline — in the real Arctic,” Nguyen said. Once he visited Iqaluit, there was no turning back.
“It almost felt like a lunar base, with a combination of harsh environment, traditional elements and modern technology. It was a representation of the inner torment of the characters. It really felt like there was a connection between the two, like the harshness of this world was a way for the characters’ torment to manifest itself.”
Maslany and DeHaan play Lucy and Roman, two troubled souls who have each ventured north to escape the ghosts of their past, and end up finding solace in one another. Aboriginal characters and culture form the backdrop against which the
intrigue is set, and are integral if not central to the story. For Nguyen, the followup to Rebelle offered another chance to show a world outside the Montreal reality he grew up in.
“As a filmmaker, I want to be relevant and bring awareness to things that haven’t been addressed before. My own urbanity has been addressed many times — I wouldn’t know what else to bring to it.
“It was important for these characters to come from the south. I feel like people (in aboriginal communities) are tired of us coming from the south and condemning things. In a way, this turns the roles around: you have people from the south, who have heartache, being supported by people from the north. It felt much more interesting, and was a way not to be judgmental about a culture that in the end I know a little bit about, but I haven’t lived there.”
Nguyen elevates an already evocative premise with touches of fantasy and nightmarish visions of past trauma. A talking polar bear is the icing on the cake, but the director resists making it a focal point. Instead he weaves what could have felt like a gimmick into the fabric of a film that plays freely with notions of reality. The rest of the time, he lets the breathtaking Arctic environment speak for itself.
“I was fortunate to again work with Nicolas Bolduc, my director of photography,” Nguyen said. “He’s like a brother to me. When you get up in the north, space and time are not set in stone. You can see something and think it’s a mile away but in fact it’s 500 miles away. You try and reach it but it just gets further. It’s the same with time: in one season you might have 18 hours of daylight,
in another it’s four hours. Time is flexible. We wanted to give a sense of that through the use of magic realism.”
For DeHaan and Maslany, the dreamlike final product that ended up on screen reflected their own sense of awe during the six weeks they spent in Iqaluit.
“It was unforgettable. I still talk about it every week,” DeHaan said. “To go up to a place I never thought I would visit ever in my life, and while I’m there get to make a cool movie with really amazing people. It was unbelievable. It was like another planet, breathtaking but also desolate, beautiful and terrifying — a lot of opposites going on all at the same time. People were really welcoming, proud of their culture and willing to share with us.”
“I made friends there who would take me to people’s houses,” Maslany said. “I got to meet them and see their art. It’s a very open-door community, very open to sharing and telling stories about what it’s like to live up there.”
One of the highlights of the shoot for both actors was working with Nguyen and carving out their characters with his help. The collaborative process included a week of workshopping scenes with the director in Montreal before heading up to Iqaluit, where many a long day on set ended with Nguyen cooking up a storm.
“He really cares for everybody,” DeHaan said. “It’s so much about being open to the moment and exploring, then you get done working and he invites you over to his house and cooks you dinner, (like) risotto with Arctic char tataki.”
“Then the risotto turns into arancini,” Maslany added. “It was amazing. We ate so well, constantly, for six weeks in the Arctic.”
When I caught up with Nguyen again this week, his mind was already elsewhere. He had just finished a tentative final edit of his next film, Eye On Juliet, another location-specific love story, this time between a drone operator and a woman living in the Middle East.
“It’s about relationships in the 21st century,” he said, “amidst a world filled with turmoil. I can’t announce (who’s doing) the soundtrack, but I’m really excited. There’s something very musical about the rhythm of the film, the way we’re crafting and pacing it. It’s really a kinetic experience.”
When you get up in the north, space and time are not set in stone. You can see something and think it’s a mile away but in fact it’s 500 miles away. You try and reach it but it just gets further. It’s the same with time: in one season you might have 18 hours of daylight, in another it’s four hours. Time is flexible. DIRECTOR KIM NGUYEN
It was like another planet, breathtaking but also desolate, beautiful and terrifying — a lot of opposites going on all at the same time. People were really welcoming, proud of their culture and willing to share with us. CO-STAR DANE DEHAAN
I made friends there who would take me to people’s houses. I got to meet them and see their art. It’s a very open-door community, very open to sharing and telling stories about what it’s like to live up there. CO-STAR TATIANA MASLANY