Hold you is, folks, it's show time. People paid good money to
see this movie. When they go out to a theater, they want cold
sodas and hot popcorn and no monsters. In the Projection Booth, everyone pretend
podcasting isn't boring off. Get up, so fucker is a gold miner,
a rich boy. Get down on your knees, fucking up big a gold
h He was a Finnish commander, lost his home and his family in the
war. He became a one man desquad. He's one mean motherfucker that you
do not want to mess with. Hi. Yeah, you'll see what happens
when you take everything from him. He really believed that he's immortal. Now
he just refuses to die. How many minds did you bury here? All
of them? You and you. This is not about who is stronger.
This is about not giving up. We had a word for that in Finland.
We might have a problem. Hey, folks, wilcome to a special
episode of The Projection Booth. I'm your host Mike White. On this episode,
I'm talking with Yald Madri Hallander all about his new film Sisu, which
is playing theatrically here in the US starting on April twenty eight, twenty twenty
three. Mister Hollander is the director of such films as Rare Exports and Big
Game. Sissu is his latest movie and it is quite a ride. Hope
you enjoyed this interview and definitely check out Sisu when you can. How did
you even get involved with filmmaking? One of the reasons is behind me First
Blood, of course et and Joe's and I knew in a lot of per
season in a way because I knew it very early on that I want to
make films like something when I was or something. And what makes me luck
of it that is that I'm actually doing it and also having the luxury of
being to do so I don't have to do anything else from one I Underson,
You've been working on TV for the last few years. What have those
projects been like? Some of them really bad, but I made one a
nice comedy series, which it's something I really enjoyed of doing, even though
it's totally different than with my films. But you have to do something to
get money. Because I had a really rough time at the Big Game trying
to figure out what I'm going to be next. How did Sister come about?
I wrote six years what this one sci fi fail to supposed to shoot
when their pandemic came and everything fell apart, And it has been so long
since I've done a film, so I of course was really fucking angry,
and I've had this idea of CCU like coup of years before. But then
I got into this place of anger and almost like Sailor's kind of feeling of
all my goaleagues and all that that I thought, I'm now I'm going to
write something fucking amazing, something that no one has seen before in a way.
And I basically needed to be on that mindset to be able to write
this. And I wrote it in two months, and everywhere we sent the
script with the producer better that Asher came latest in twenty four hours, and
the dog it was always yes. It was really quickly to raise the money
for this film, and it's been so good process of and I hope every
film would be like this, so you don't have to develop something for that
many years or because it's not always a good thing. Just to maintain the
image you had when you like wrote the script and used that the energy and
being in the shooting right after that and just write it. I love it.
Have you ever had a project though that smoothly before? Yep, not
even close. I was very surprised when I watched the movie the first time
that it was in English. Why the decision to have most of it in
English? That helped for the quick finance, And because I've even in Finland.
We have something like five million people living in Finland. If I would
do those of a Finnish language film, it would be well, most impossive
pool Jewel. I have that kind of budget to do an action. So
my Joe's was not just speak at all, and not just we're talking in
it is like they do in some other films. Also, I had a
basically kive a shit about they just have to talk something different than art of
it? Does you need tell me a little bit about the locations because I
love just how stark the world is that you're cared living and this It was
very jagremy in the beginning that I need to be somewhere really open landscape like
that that you can see the emptiness and you can see the loneliness, see
the whole lessness of being in a very difficult place and you don't have police.
You're going to call it you off, you are in a pas where
you actually have to that and there are no rules. You have to do
what you do to survive. And what Game was a place like that,
and I've never been there myself, but it's north part in Finland you can
actually get so it was a really difficult place but really beautiful place and it
really gave a lot of energy and I think it's really important part of the
film, the whole place where we are, and then the actors bring so
much to it. Can you tell me about your lead actor, especially how
I've worked with your of course before involved my films. Also he's been involved
in my short films before my feature films and that, and he was the
first person I called when I had the idea of Sisu because I never couldn't
imagine anyone else doing it that him, because he has that kind of in
his presence or karismael in his face, source somewhere that you can just shoot
him. And he looked interesting and it's not that common do you have an
action without a dialogue and still maintained like all the stuff, because he's basically
carrying the whole film in his shoulders and he does it so well. Like
one of my favorite moments was wo when I was behind the monitor of seeing
him finding the cold wine in the hole where what he has been digging,
Like, how good is that performance? It's like a force of nature.
Well, I can really see you going to your rambow roots in this.
This whole idea of this guy is just trying to give from one place to
another and people mess with him and then he messes back. I love stories
that you're fucking with the wrong dude kind of ibas somehow really satisfy. I
remember this scene from The Witness where Hotterson four is sitting with all the Aviash
dudes in there, and then these people come to mess with one, but
they don't know that there's this one guy who doesn't have the rules that the
rest of us. And there's something really satisfying of that kind of situation.
One of the key elements of writing sees Arar was because I don't have one
hundred minute dollar budget, I knew that I had to be inventive in the
ways that I can, because it's not just about art and fighting Maxis,
it's about how that's the important thing. If I would just I or fight
this film wouldn't be as famous as it is now. That's the key thing
I think to keep the audience surprise, surprising themselves. Okay, what the
fuck is Econic do now? And I'm Britisher. No one can tell what
he's going to do next, and that's what I think. It's really entertaining.
Can you tell me about that airplane crash? What happens on the phone?
We actually had the hull of the plane which actually has been involved with
the D Day Norman Dick and we found it from the yard of from museum
and we brought that to the studio and we used a lot of it.
Of course, we didn't drop it to the swamp where the explosion happens.
But what we did do is the SFX team was like, I don't remember
how many days, when it was something like three days, they were digging
dinahite inside to the swamp to make that huge explosion. We added that CGI
plane eating that ground. The look of the dirt and just all of the
debris in the air looked so good. It was so well done. Yeah,
it's just something you've can't do with CGI because I allow real explosions and
real stunts, because what's interesting is that you can't expect everything what's going to
happen, like you're going to see something you just like that's happened. As
the film already been out in Finland and in Europe. Being in Finland,
it opened on January in Finland, but it's not being really anywhere else yet,
so I think it's all the other Nordic countries are this week, I
think, and US is next week. It's very thrilled to see the trailer
for it on the front of john Wick four. That was great. I
saw it too, and I went to see Joe. Thank you so much
for your time. I really appreciate this. Thank you, keep up the
great work. Thank you again. I'll try so my lies and Sindrius see
soon. Say light daurnaukum nepat yapurukautu la keep minamisia media. I'm now nagain
me. You're the good. I mean I could have me to day sail
on time and I can dynaby step on drive directors, take on to keep
up, keep back and I start the sun. I mean upstans call get
rid this time good. I mean Dai said, I got my car monkey,
macky man, my car MARKI the Love of Margins with fancy local ass
like I said, thank cool, yeah, give me Holly on mission da.
So its school? Shall I see you down? Down? I don't coun