Plongée dans les prisons danoises aux côtés des gardes, c'est dans Prisoner, la nouvelle série danoise.
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00:00 Originals, Originals.
00:03 Discover our interviews on the series that are the news.
00:07 On the occasion of the 29th edition of GIF,
00:12 whose beta series is a partner,
00:14 we welcome Sophie Grabel, one of the main actresses of Prisoner,
00:17 the last Danish series of DR,
00:19 which is still waiting for a distributor in France.
00:21 Hello Sophie.
00:22 Hello, how are you?
00:23 Good, thank you and you?
00:24 I'm fine, thanks.
00:25 First question first,
00:26 so can you pitch us shortly Prisoner, please?
00:30 Prisoner is a six episode TV series
00:35 and it takes place mainly in a prison
00:39 and it focuses on the people working as prison guards
00:47 and the prison is in the beginning being set under pressure
00:55 because there's a threat that it will be closed.
01:00 So it has to shape up
01:03 and it puts pressure on both the inmates and the prison guards.
01:10 And what about your character, Miriam?
01:13 I play Miriam who is a prison guard
01:16 and who takes great pride in her work,
01:22 has a profound belief in the system that she's part of
01:27 and her moral standards are being really strongly challenged
01:39 by a situation that she is put in that I don't want to spoil,
01:45 but she is compromised in her belief in the system
01:53 and her own moral standards.
01:56 Last year actually in Geneva we had The Shift presented at the festival.
02:03 So I think the characters are quite similar,
02:07 as in they're doing the best they can in their field
02:13 and also you have budget cuts.
02:16 In The Shift you had an extramarital affair,
02:20 in this one you had family issues.
02:22 So why are you always going for difficult, contradictory characters
02:29 and why can't you just go for a funny, easy character?
02:33 What attracts you to a role?
02:35 Oh, there are many things that attract me to a role.
02:40 I mean a good role is definitely a role with contradictions and nuances
02:51 and obviously a character who is put under great amount of pressure
03:01 is always interesting because that's where you see all the cracks
03:05 and it's interesting to explore those cracks in any character.
03:14 But also I'll say that I actually enjoy doing all genres.
03:21 I mean I also enjoy doing comedy and I feel I've always felt extremely privileged
03:28 in the sense that I have been allowed and still feel allowed
03:33 to do very different characters in both film and TV series, but also in the theatre.
03:43 For this role for Miriam, did you talk to real life prison guards to prepare for this role?
03:50 All of the actors who play the prison guards in Prisoner,
03:55 we had a lot of preparation apart from the preparation you always have
04:02 reading the script and trying to give thought to the best way to portray your character
04:10 and do the scenes, but with this project there was actually a lot to learn
04:18 about the line of work and I realised pretty quickly
04:23 and I think a lot of people, we have this notion that we somehow know
04:30 what the life in a prison is, but I realised very quickly that my notion of that
04:39 is very much based on TV series and films.
04:43 I can talk about my own prejudice about this profession.
04:49 I maybe thought, well first of all I thought that the main thing is to have some keys
04:55 and open and lock doors and maybe I also had, which I'm not proud to admit,
05:03 an idea that prison guards may be people who somehow have a need to feel empowered
05:12 and have that power, but actually what I learned is that almost at least
05:19 the majority of people working as prison guards, the biggest part of the job
05:25 and their ambition with going into this field of work is the social interaction
05:32 with people who find themselves in a bad situation in their life.
05:39 I think most prison guards actually enter this profession with a strong wish
05:46 to make a difference in people's lives and then obviously, which is also
05:53 a big issue in prison is that they become a part of a system that is very much
06:02 under pressure and I think not only in my country in Denmark,
06:07 but in a lot of European countries we have a sense that a lot of those institutions
06:17 that we consider fundamental and essential in society, like the healthcare system
06:24 and the school system, are under a lot of pressure these years.
06:32 And in regards to prisons, there is a huge lack of prison guards,
06:40 so the people working in the prisons are under an extreme amount of pressure
06:48 and they often find themselves with very little time to do what they actually
06:56 want to do to make a difference in the social context of the lives of the prisoners
07:04 and very much end up in just dealing with everyday practical making things work.
07:15 And that is definitely also a big part of the story in prison.
07:23 I've actually grown to respect the work of prison guards quite a lot.
07:32 It's not an easy job.
07:34 So yes, what do you think is the message behind...
07:38 In all good drama, and I'm definitely very proud of Prisoner,
07:44 I really think it's a powerful, well-written, well-directed, well-acted story.
07:51 There is no clear message.
07:55 It's an exploration really of moral issues, moral standards,
08:08 and maybe grey zones in ethics and morality.
08:14 It's mirrored in Prisoner both in the characters, in my case,
08:22 the character I play, Miriam, she's definitely challenged in her own moral compass
08:30 where do you actually compromise with your morals and your ideals if you're pushed enough.
08:41 But it's also obviously on a grander scale, it also explores and exposes the moral and ethic issues
08:52 of all of society in the way we deal with and treat people who are not obeying the rules of society.
09:06 It's filled with dilemmas, isn't it?
09:10 Your character is quite opposed to Henrik, another main character,
09:15 and I thought it was very, very unfair, your arc story, compared to Henrik's.
09:22 Because, as you said at the beginning, it seems like you're the perfect guard,
09:27 contrary to him, and at the end you have those events.
09:33 Was there an alternative ending discussed at one point, or was it always like that?
09:39 No, this story is 100% created by Kim Fubbs, who is the writer,
09:48 and I think that he's a brilliant writer.
09:51 He's one of the best writers in Danish cinema and drama,
09:57 and obviously one of the things that makes him so brilliant
10:02 and makes Prisoners so well-written, in my view, is there's no character
10:09 that doesn't have nuances and contradictions.
10:15 There's no black and white.
10:17 The character of Henrik, who is definitely, which is also a big risk in this line of work,
10:25 and I think in every human being, if you're put under enough pressure,
10:30 that there might be a point where you start considering other people
10:39 as problems to be solved, rather than people, than human beings.
10:46 And that has definitely happened to him.
10:50 He has a very cynical approach to the prisoners,
10:57 but he also has a very strong story for his character,
11:05 which reveals more to him than what you see in the beginning.
11:11 So there's no character in the story who is good or bad.
11:17 So it's more, I think, a story about how every person in this story,
11:24 on each side of the locked door, both prisoners and prison guards,
11:29 are somehow prisoners of the system.
11:35 Did you shoot in a real prison, like an empty prison,
11:39 or was it a built set completely?
11:42 We didn't. Everything was shot on location,
11:46 and the main part of the story takes place in the prison,
11:51 and this was shot in a prison that was closed, I think,
11:55 five or seven years ago, recently.
11:58 So it's totally... everything is there.
12:02 And actually, I think, working on this project,
12:08 it was such an intense process.
12:13 I mean, as an actor, when you put on that uniform,
12:16 and you enter this building, which has such a strong aura,
12:24 and also, most of the people who play the inmates
12:28 are not professional actors.
12:31 They are just so amazing.
12:34 They've just been so engaged and so brave, I think, emotionally,
12:43 and a lot of them have backgrounds in the criminal system themselves,
12:49 and also, apart from the main prison guards,
12:53 a lot of the bigger groups of prison guards
12:58 are actually real prison guards, working as prison guards.
13:02 So there was this very strong sense of authenticity
13:07 around the set, working with the scenes.
13:11 I mean, we got so much given from shooting in a real prison
13:18 and working with people who are not just entering a fiction,
13:25 but who carry their stories,
13:29 that that strong sense of authenticity really radiates
13:35 through a prisoner when you see it.
13:38 It's a brutal story, and it's a brutal vibe that the series has.
13:50 I'm very proud of it, actually.
13:54 Of course, having you here, it would be a crime
13:57 if I did not mention the killing.
14:00 I don't want to say how many years ago it was.
14:03 Oh, you can.
14:05 16 years ago, yes.
14:08 So what memory do you keep from this show
14:12 that stays still with you till today?
14:15 Well, I actually find that the longer, the more years that have passed,
14:21 the more I really... I'm extremely proud of having been a part of the killing.
14:31 You know, first of all, it was a really huge joy to work on that project.
14:40 And we actually had a lot of fun, which you wouldn't imagine,
14:44 because it was this dark, noir.
14:49 I mean, when it became a success outside of Denmark,
14:53 it came as a huge surprise to us.
14:57 We didn't expect at all that it would be embraced
15:03 by so many other cultures and countries.
15:07 So that was a hugely moving experience.
15:11 But I also have to say that... What did you say? 16 years?
15:14 Yes.
15:15 It moves me and makes me very proud that it's still, you know,
15:19 remembered after 16 years.
15:22 I think of it with great warmth and happiness and pride.
15:29 So, because we are a recommendation site for other TV shows,
15:33 what's the last TV show you've really, really enjoyed?
15:37 Well, I'm always behind with TV series.
15:41 I think the amount... There's so much amazing to watch.
15:49 And I don't know, I fell behind years ago, and I won't even admit to you...
15:54 You're working too much.
15:56 Yeah, both that and maybe just... Sometimes when I sit down to watch,
16:01 I always end up watching a documentary or the news or debates or...
16:08 This long apology to say that I discovered I watched Succession
16:13 like three months ago.
16:16 And I just watched the whole... I just watched them as one whole.
16:23 Totally brilliant.
16:25 Well, thank you very much.
16:27 And I hope we'll discover Prisoner in France very soon.
16:30 Thank you.
16:31 Thank you for having me.
16:33 Originals. Discover our interviews in preview on the series that make the news.
16:39 [MUSIC PLAYING]
16:42 (dramatic music)