The process - the making of an indiefilm

What started as a rebellion against the ‘safe’ and pedantic Danish film industry that neglects young filmmakers ended up as the ultimate filmmaking experience.

In conversations in Rome in 2000 with one of Europe’s great screenwriters, Suso Cecchi d’Amico, the director heard her tell about what became known as Italian Neo-realism. She mocked the label, which had been slapped onto the films by someone else, somewhere else in the world. Because all it was was a group of friends, with a common desire to make films, who headed out onto the streets and began shooting.

With that in mind, Zakka West was born. The director, Mikael Colville-Andersen had been granted carte blanche to make the film – a rarity in a modern film world. As a result, he chose to go the whole nine yards and accommodate every whim.

The writer/director played the leading role. The producer wanted to film chronologically. The sound designer wished to compose the original soundtrack. The cinematographer wanted to shoot the whole film on the new Aaton Minima super 16 camera. The film was edited on Final Cut Pro – the first Danish feature to do so. Shooting wrapped in just 19 days.

The entire crew were given free reign to test their own creative limits - because film should be an ongoing experiment containing constant doubt, passion and room for personal creativity.

The result is a feature film with a mood all it’s own. A ‘French film, in English, in Copenhagen’, as the director was quoted as saying. Although he freely admits that he has absolutely no idea what that could possibly mean.