Director drops guard for ‘Fencer’
The Fencer (not rated) opens at Bay Area theaters Friday, Aug. 25.
Five years ago, when Finnish director Klaus Härö sat down to read Anna Heinämaa’s screenplay “The Fencer,” he was thinking of graceful ways to turn down the assignment. The story took place in Estonia, just across the Gulf of Finland from Helsinki, but it was a country and a language with which he was unfamiliar. He was equally unfamiliar with fencing. And he would have to work with a large cast of kids. That was three strikes against the project. But by Page 15, he found himself hooked.
“It was such an exciting and warm story set in such a gloomy era,” Härö says in a phone call from Finland. “I really liked this contrast. Amid this gray gloominess, you have this beautiful, balletlike sport anchoring something that gives you hope and courage. It’s a message from another era . ... I thought that if I could do this, it would be like a gift.”
Set in the early 1950s, “The Fencer” is the story of real-life Estonian fencer Endel Nelis (Märt Avandi), a new teacher in the seaside town of Haapsalu who forms a fencing club and plans to enter the kids in a big tournament. His actions anger the school’s principal, who begins to investigate why Nelis left cosmopolitan Leningrad for sleepy Haapsalu in the first place — a dangerous inquiry during the Stalinist era, including a time when Estonia had been occupied by the Nazis during World War II.
“It’s really a David-andGoliath story,” Härö says. “Every sport has its own legends, and Nelis was one of those. The Soviet Union fell in 1991, but this little fencing club still goes on today, and has produced gold medalists and world championships.”
There was a Tower of Babel aspect to Härö’s film shoot with Finnish, Estonian and Russian spoken. He likens the experience to working with a symphony orchestra where an international group of musicians speak different languages, but harmonize beautifully. There were some hiccups. He laughs as he recalls a translator he had to assign to a different job. Härö would give a short direction. The translations were suspiciously lengthy.
“It turns out that he wants to be a film director,” Härö says.
The director also was unaware until he got to Estonia just how big a star Avandi is in that country, unable to walk the streets without fans accosting him. But his fame is as a comedian and crew members wondered how he would do in a dramatic role. Härö had no such qualms, pointing to the actor’s performance as Mitch in a theatrical production of Tennessee
Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire.” He also found the actor’s method in working with the children helpful in making a film that was shot mostly chronologically.
“At the beginning of the shoot, he kept quite a distance from the kids,” Härö says. “He wanted to be private, so the kids wouldn’t be too comfortable with him. There was a sort of tension that showed in their faces. As the shoot went on, he became friendlier, staying on the set, talking with them, joking. They got to know him.”
“The Fencer” was shortlisted for a foreign language Oscar and nominated for a Golden Globe, but a Finnish film shot in Estonia with no recognizable names might never have come out in the United States if it weren’t for the nonprofit California Film Institute, which is distributing it. “The Fencer” was chosen after it resonated with the film institute’s founder and executive director, Mark Fishkin.
“For me it was a reminder of how an adult can have a profound effect on children, especially kids who really have little or nothing,” Fishkin says. “‘The Fencer’ really embodies that. It’s just such a touching film.”
Härö is grateful for the film institute’s efforts, as well as all the film’s accolades, including a Jussi Award (Finland’s equivalent of the Oscars) for best film. But among the things he is proud of is a bit of news he received from Endel Nelis’ son Peeter. (Peeter and his sister Helen Nelis-Naukas are both fencing trainers; Nelis-Naukas’ son Sten Priinits was a silver medalist in the sport at the 2015 European championships.) Peeter told him that thanks to “The Fencer” raising the Haapsalu club’s profile, a brandnew arena had been erected to serve as the club’s home.
“Peeter was beaming with pride and joy, saying, ‘It’s been a long journey from fencing in bare feet with wooden sticks to our new arena,’ ” Härö says. “Of course, hearing that, you realize sometimes films do matter.”
Pam Grady is a San Francisco freelance writer. Twitter: @cinepam