A version of this story about “War Sailor” first ran in the International Film issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
“War Sailor,” the most expensive Norwegian film ever made with a budget of $11 million, traces the story of Norway’s involvement in World War II through the eyes of a sailor (Kristoffer Joner) who is drafted into joining the Allied war effort and shattered by his experience at sea.
Writer-director Gunnar Vikene, 56, drew upon stories that he heard as a child among his parents’ generation. The result is a war film that’s both epic and intimate, detailing the horrors of war and its long-term consequences — subjects that Gunner discussed during a conversation with TheWrap. The movie is Norway’s official selection for the Best International Feature Film Oscar.
Why was this an important part of history for you to tell on screen?
The story of the Norwegian sailors, as far as I know, had never been told on film like this. They were absolutely vital to the war effort and the victory. As I was growing up in the 1970s, a lot of people who were homeless in Norway were former sailors. I come from the working class and it got to me that the working-class perspective hadn’t been told. So I gathered stories about the war for years and years. I remember a man who worked with my father, and this man was self-medicating with alcohol. My dad told me, “He was torpedoed twice during the war.”
What were your goals in telling this story?
Well, there are films in Norway that have been made about this historical period, but some of them have an undertone of nationalism that I don’t like. And so the story goes on long after the war has ended. The last scene is set in 1972 and it was inspired by the grandson of one of the sailors, who told me that in the last years of his granddad’s life, his granddad said, “It’s not the torpedoing that gives me nightmares, it’s everything that could have been but never was.” The final scene features sailors as older men, and when they visit each other, they simply can’t speak. That was the first scene I wrote. And then I wrote the first draft in one and a half months.
Also, in 2015, during the war in Syria, my daughter was 12 at the time and she saw the civilians on TV. There there was one image of a boy in the ambulance, six or seven years old, and covered in dust. And my daughter said, “I’m so glad we live in a country that doesn’t experience that.” And I just had to point out the window and show her that part of this city in Norway was flattened. My mother’s second cousins were at that school that day, when it was bombed. I said to her, “We have experienced that.” And we had a discussion about how we can help refugees today.
The film also shows the affect on children, both as civilians and soldiers.
Yes, that was important to depict. People don’t know of how many children were aboard these ships. We sent them out there. The youngest who died aboard were 14 years old. How can we understand the brutality that is demanded of them – of their psyche.
After one of the ships is torpedoes and sinks, there is a long sequence set aboard a floating raft, as the sailors stuggle for survival. How did you film that?
We were supposed to shoot that at the big water tank in Malta, where many movies are filmed, but after visiting it we thought, “Let’s do it in the open water.” So it was all in the sea, with no studio work. I didn’t want to feel any CGI in the scene. And I really like to have it in the camera but it was very challenging. The raft was so small the there was no room apart from the actors and the cinematographer. And it was difficult to go too far out to see, where you couldn’t see land anymore, because the waves were too rough.
Your lead actor, Kristoffer Joner, has an incredible, mournful face for this role. Did you have him in mind when you were writing the role?
Well, I often do. I made my first feature film with him (2002’s “Falling Sky”) and he’s been my friend for over 20 years. When I wrote this script, I knew it would be very physically and mentality demanding for the actor. So I was somewhat afraid that this would affect the friendship between Kristoffer and I. But it worked out. I think he’s in a class by himself. He worked so hard for it. He’s very powerful.
The film also shows the toll of miscommunication, in which people were told false information about the fate of their loved ones.
It happened a lot. Our ambition was to make not just a war film, but a film about the consequences of war. And when it comes to false reports, that happened many times. One of the saddest moments was when a ship was sunk and a sailor was reported dead, then he was reported alive in a Japanese camp, and then he was reported dead again. That happened a lot. A woman told me that she was four at the time where her father, who had been reported dead, showed up at the door.
Some of the stories told to me were just so hard to hear. At a recent screening I met a girl from Ukraine who came to me and was so affected by the film. She asked me, “Do you think the scars from war ever go away?” She was really wanting me to say yes, but what could I say?
How do you think the characters in your film might answer that question?
For some that came home, they seemingly managed their lives. I have met a few veterans who said, “I put the experience in a box and left it behind me.” But who can predict how anyone will react? I think the truth remains about what war does to humans—it takes away their humanity and their potential.
Read more from the International Film issue here.
