Fanny Ovesen Discusses Her Directorial Debut Live A Little with Nordic Watchlist as her film debuts at Glasgow Film Festival

Fanny Ovesen’s directorial debut, Live A Little, is sure to spark conversation. It’s a film that explores notions of memory and consent and identity; of what it means to be a young woman; of victimhood and guilt. It places this remarkably complex emotional territory against the familiar backdrop of the coming-of-age story. And, perhaps even more remarkably, it is based on Ovesen’s own experiences of couch surfing her way through Europe with a friend. 

As she sits down with Nordic Watchlist, it is clear that Ovesen has been both meticulous and empathetic throughout the process of making the film. From casting to writing, to the way certain cities are shot, it has all been based on distinct choices. Something that, ironically, her two lead characters perhaps feel they don’t have. 

“I wanted to go into that identity crisis that she [Laura] experiences and also try to explore how far she would be willing to go to not be a victim. And why is it so scary to be a victim? Like, why would you want to take all those other consequences that come with having been unfaithful, for example, with friends at home turning their backs on her? That is what fascinated me, and then that really needed to be a nuanced story that was moving in the grey zones in order to be told at all.” 

Casting the two leads of Laura (Embla Ingelman-Sundberg) and Alex (Aviva Wrede) was surely challenging, then, as the story was so personal and the characters are so opposite. 

“I wanted them to have this kind of freshness and this feeling of being for the first time out in the world, not like world citizens already, but a bit naive somehow,” Ovesen muses. “That was important when casting. So we were looking, we were going to a lot of schools, to high schools, having open auditions, trying to find people that maybe didn’t have a lot of experience before. With Laura, we found her in high school in a theatre program. And Aviva, who’s playing Alex, she had been part of one series before, so she had a little bit of experience, but was pretty new to it as well.”

“Process-wise, I think what was nice was since I cast them so early, before I had actually written the long script,” she admits. “We’re all from Gothenburg. And we would be hanging out there at the centre, and me with a camera filming them. I would give them little tasks like ‘discuss who you would stay with here if you were couchsurfing with people here’.

“They would be in character for 40-50 minutes just talking about things or talking about themes that I wanted them to talk about in the movie. They were very funny, and they already had such a nice dynamic … So a lot of it I just took and wrote directly into the script, so a lot of the dialogues are based on their own improvisations and interactions. So I think maybe they have kind of grown into the script. The script has been written for them.” 

With the weighty subject of the film, Ovesen says that she took care to discuss rape and consent with the two leads, to ensure that nothing they would be filming was triggering for them. Both she and Embla Ingelman-Sundberg did research into what it means to experience sexual assault, how you react afterwards and how you process what has happened to your body. 

And, in a sense, the film leaves the aftermath of Laura’s experiences up to the viewer, through a series of contradictory flashbacks. 

“It was really important, actually,” Ovesen says of her decision to portray Laura’s experience like this. “Because most women who have these kinds of blackouts … they don’t get their memories back. You don’t get the answer you were looking for … You have to live not knowing exactly what happened. And the only thing you get to decide is whether or not a boundary was crossed for you.” 

And there are several examples of boundaries being crossed within the film. Might this encourage young viewers, in particular, to reassess their attitudes towards sex and consent? 

“I think a lot of teens now grow up knowing that [consent]  is important, but they still have no idea. But what is it? How is it? It’s not only about saying, ‘Do you want to be strangled?’ ‘Do you like it?’ But for a young woman who, for example, knows that a lot of guys like this and you’re supposed to like it, and you’re supposed to be this free, excited, cool girl that’s up for anything, because that’s how you’re supposed to be nowadays … you say yes to things you don’t want.” 

What marks Live A Little out from the usual travelogue-style films of the same genre is its refusal to romanticise some of the most commonly visited cities in Europe. The visual language of the film means that, against the pretty pastels of Prague, we feel sticky, grimy and all too aware of the inner turmoil of our characters. 

“We treated them differently. With my cinematographers, we were very clear that we didn’t want it to be a typical postcard film. We wanted rather to use the roughness of the locations and also the couchsurfing culture, which is usually you’re staying with locals, they bring you to all kinds of places you would probably not go if you were doing the tourist thing on your own. 

“And I wanted to place their relationship drama in that picturesque setting. Like, it’s supposed to be romantic and nice, but it’s everything else for these two people or for these three, four people that are engaged in this drama. So that was supposed to be a contrast, whereas when she comes to Paris, she’s completely messed up”.

“She’s terrified that she’s a rape victim. She needs to have answers. And then I did not want that typical postcard image of the Eiffel Tower, but it’s brushing past in the background, and then we’re in the subway and trying to use the roughness of the city and the messiness of all the people around to show her storm inside somehow.” 

One scene, in particular, stands out for Ovesen whilst shooting. And it was set in a cramped bathroom, not a well-known holiday destination.

“Alex is, for the first time, realising that Laura actually had a blackout, like a blackout blackout, that it was not a ‘just little bit blurry’. We had worked through many different versions of this scene, but eventually it all just kind of came together,” she says. “It was me, the cinematographer, the sound person in a tiny room and these three actors in front of the camera. I think all of us could very much connect to what was at stake in that moment.

“I connected with that situation because it was what I had gone through with my own friend. And it asks you what it means to be a friend; how to react. So we were all there, the scene played, then the producer and the script supervisor came out and they were crying. I was also crying.” 

This behind-the-scenes moment also speaks to the power of women telling stories about women and what it means to navigate the world, your sexuality and your safety. Ovesen tells aspiring female filmmakers, “Share them [your stories]. Do everything you can to share them.” 

“Be patient,” she adds, with a laugh. “And really, really stay true to what it is that you want to tell. Don’t let anyone affect you. If financiers are trying to change the script, then it’s better to do it with zero budget with your friends, actually.” 

And in an industry that has been dominated by male voices since its inception, Oveson proudly lists the likes of Andrea Arnold, Lynne Ramsay and Gabriela Pichler as some of her inspirations and influences. 

“When I started making films, I was very worried that I would not have the kind of personality that it takes,” she says. “I was imagining that to be a director, you have to be the kind of person who’s standing in the middle of the room and has a very loud voice and knows exactly what they want all the time and points with their whole hand, and, you know, the cliche of a typical male director, I guess”.

“Through film school, I somehow learned that people wanted to work with me, even if I did not act like that. It was just not natural for me to act like that. I’m a much more observational, careful, thinking-before-I-speak kind of person. I’ve been able to find a natural authority in being calm and not having the typical director personality, but another type of director personality that is maybe more female-coded.” 

From watching Live A Little, it is clear that Ovesen’s careful observations are exactly what make the film so powerful, so resonant; so intelligent. It’s that calmness that allows both the characters and the emotional weight of the subject matter to breathe; to really impact the viewer. These important stories should lie in the hands of those who have the nuance to tell them, as Oveson does. 

And it sounds like the writer/director’s next project – due for release in 2027 – is going to be equally complex. 

“I’m just finishing my second feature, which does not have a title yet. It’s also a youth drama, about a Norwegian school class that goes to visit Auschwitz. It has a lot of humour, despite the dark place they’re going to. But it’s also very dark at times. It’s about the clash of expectations between a teacher who really wants the kids to learn a lot and a bunch of kids who are very intent on losing their virginity or stealing alcohol, and how all of this kind of comes together and is clashing with this dark backdrop.” 

Nordic Watchlist eagerly awaits its release. 

Live A Little is screening at Glasgow Film Festival – any further news of a UK or USA release we will keep you posted on. You can read our full review of Live A Little HERE