00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group R editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely to speak
00:06to Lena and Thor this afternoon about the film which you are bringing to the Chichester International
00:12Film Festival. It's got a fantastic sounding title, really appealing, intriguing title,
00:18Leonora in the Morning Light. It's going to be at the Chichester International Film Festival on
00:23August the 17th and the 18th, and you both will be there. So Thor, tell me first, why Leonora
00:29Carrington? What's the fascination with her? Why is she someone that we should be thinking about now?
00:35I think because she touches upon something in her paintings that we all long for. It's a search for
00:43everything beyond the material world. You can call it spiritual or metaphysical. And her paintings
00:52somehow have this particular energy about them. And this is why a lot of people all around the
00:59world in the last years rediscovered her. Mexico, she's quite an icon. She's right up there next to
01:06Frida Kahlo, which also was quite surprising for us. But we had lost her a bit, hadn't we?
01:13Yes, absolutely. She was, I would say, overlooked for a long time. I mean, she went to Mexico after the Second
01:25World War, or in the midst of the Second World War, I shall say. And she formed her own, back then the world
01:36was not as connected. So for a long time, she was painting there. And people in Mexico got to know
01:41her. And she became known, but not in Europe. So that's the aspect that she is such a fascinating
01:50character.
01:50And you are looking at Europe, particularly, well, Lena, you tell me to invoke, to recreate Paris in
01:57the 1930s. That must have been fascinating to do, but challenging.
02:02Yeah, so I mean, it's not only Paris in the 30s, also the south of France, Spain, Mexico City, and then
02:10the jungle in Mexico, there is a surrealistic city built in the middle of the jungle. And we've been to
02:16all these places, first to do research, to see, to kind of walk in the footsteps of Leonora Carrington,
02:23but then also be there to shoot. And of course, some stuff we had to recreate because Paris doesn't
02:29look like in the 30s anymore, that much. So we had to do quite a lot of set building as well. But yeah,
02:38it's it turned out really, really well. We had a fantastic cinematographer with us from Romania. And
02:45yeah, I think it's a lot of fun to kind of be zoomed back into the 30s.
02:51Absolutely. And so this is a journey for you that you've been on for a while,
02:55haven't you? Some years since you optioned the novel. You're now at the point of releasing the
03:00film to the world. Exciting? Terrifying? What is it?
03:05It's, well, it's a bit of both, but it's mostly exciting. Also, we had our world premiere in Mexico
03:12and Munich, it was a shared world premiere, which is very special, because both countries were involved
03:17in the film. And particularly being in Mexico, showing the film to a Mexican audience was really,
03:24I would say, the best experience so far I had in showing a film, because people were really
03:31overwhelmed. And they really loved the film, which is, of course, people say that very often at a
03:38premiere, but you could really feel in the room that that people really could connect with it and felt
03:44the film, because it's very much about feeling rather than, it's not an art lecture, it's really
03:49a journey. And it's a lot about the feeling. And it's first and foremost, for me, it's a film about
03:55a new beginning. Absolutely. And Lena, what about you? Are you able to stand back a little bit and enjoy,
04:00or are you still deep in the film? We just really like now to kind of travel with the film and
04:07discover it in different countries. I mean, at the Chichester Film Festival, it's going to be the UK
04:14premiere. So the UK festival launch. So first time the UK sees this film, and we're working right now
04:22to get a UK distributor for a nationwide release later in the next months. And then in September,
04:30there's going to be a big theatrical release in Mexico. So we're just going to travel with the film and
04:35hopefully, good conversations after the shows. Brilliant. Well, really lovely to meet you
04:41both and to speak to you both. And very much looking forward to seeing the film in Chichester.
04:46Thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much. See you there.
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