– I have seen more than enough of dark and gloomy portrayals of Vikings, since the Viking heritage has been hijacked by those who love the dark side of it. The fact police have destroyed all possibility of playing with the Viking Age, claims Zwart.
Now he is nevertheless working on an all-night animated film, based on a story that he and his producer wife Veslemøy Zwart wrote during the pandemic together with their daughter Stella, called “The Viking Girls”.
– The story of these two girls gives me a new way to tell about the Viking Age, he says to NTB.
Museum cooperation
Film couple Zwart has entered into a collaboration with Museum Nord, which, among other things, has the Viking museum Lofotr, and recently met the Viking experts from there. For now, it has been decided that the upcoming animated film’s heroines – the Viking girls Hedvig and Ingeborg – will have their home, their kaupang, in Lofoten.
Torgeir Sanders from Gimpville was also responsible for the animation. You had to put in place all the references and elements that will enter the visual world. The story is now with the so-called storyboard artists, and Veslemøy Zwart reveals one thing:
– There are strict instructions to all storyboard artists that “no, we don’t have horns”. It turns out to be difficult to draw Vikings without them, she jokes, but adds that fortunately it is something that the film’s character designers, Carter Goodrich (“Ratatouille”) and Peter de Sève (“Ice Age”), have realized where they are now working on design the main characters.
Imagination important
The two Viking girls whom cinemagoers will meet in November 2027 are highly unconventional for their time. Around the year 1000, the chieftain’s daughter Hedvig and Ingeborg, daughter of a female blacksmith, set off on an adventurous journey around the world to return something that their fathers have inadvertently brought with them from a voyage.
Because in “The Viking Girls” meticulously researched historical facts are mixed with fantasy. The Zwart couple learned that from the ever-current Astrid Lindgren.
– Lindgren anchored the importance of using the imagination also when we have to tell stories, says Veslemøy Zwart and thinks another important question to ask is: Is it necessarily the case that what we now believe is the right thing?
Allow yourself to fantasize
– The imagination must be set in motion among the archaeologists too, says the experienced film producer:
– However, everyone agrees that the story, not least about the women of that time, is under-told because we know so little. When a grave was found with two women in it, who had brought many riches with them, one would hardly believe at first that they must have been important. We base our imagination on the fact that Viking girls have lived who may have dreamed of something else – who dared to think beyond the immediate guidelines.
New start
The idea behind the corona-era script came to them as early as 2004. Then two children’s book authors came to the film couple’s door with the idea for “Viqueens”, a story about two Viking girls, originally intended for much younger children.
– I thought it was so fascinating with two viking girls who were rebels that I bought the rights. Until covid it was in the drawer. We became super involved in history – and the idea of how Norwegians went from being regarded by the outside world as a very violent people to not being characterized as such at all today, says Veslemøy Zwart.
The director husband declares that he loves the settlement we like to make with our parents, and how each generation can mean a new start.
– Just think: Someone started exchanging gifts and culture – rather than hitting each other in the head. Our Viking girls can symbolize the start of us Norwegians becoming a folk festival that is well-liked all over the world! he says.
Long journey
The budget for “The Viking Girls” is NOK 73.4 million, and the couple’s production company Zwart Arbeid received, among other things, an early production grant of NOK 12 million from the Norwegian Film Institute. Now three new years of work await Gimpville and co-producers Oslo Post Company Megafon and Lofoten Film Collective.
The film pair still have their base in the USA, while the animation takes place in Norway. The film project will run parallel to other things they are doing, including as co-producers for the sequel to the Netflix hit “Troll”. But Harald Zwart says that the “Viking girls” are extra close to him.
– It’s a lovely story to tell, so it’s close to my heart and what we’re most looking forward to doing.
