The year is 1361, and a very young Margrete is witnessing the dead and wounded soldiers on the battlefield of Visby. Cut to 1402, Margrete (played by Danish actress Trine Dyrholm), has become Queen Margrete of Denmark and is negotiating with Norwegians and Swedes to create peace in the Nordic countries. This is the premise of Margrete: Queen of the North – the latest film by Danish filmmaker Charlotte Sieling, who is known for working on several successful Danish TV series such as Unit One, The Killing, and The Bridge. The film is about a powerful woman – a queen – fighting for peace in her region. The film shows the dilemma the powerful monarch has when a man claiming to be her dead son appears and threatens her path to freedom and peace for the Nordic countries. It shows how a mother could make highly difficult political choices and prioritize her country’s wellbeing above anything else – and how a strong woman was able to create a union between three countries – the Kalmar union – and prevent them from fighting each other. This is a historical film about a certain period in Scandinavia’s history, but it deals with very current and modern issues. We spoke to Charlotte Sieling about her film.  

You have made a film about the Danish queen Margrete of Denmark I, who lived from 1353 to 1412 and ruled Denmark, Norway and Sweden from the 1380s until her death. Why make a film about her?

It is very obvious actually. She made peace in a very violent era. She lived 12 of those years herself but after her death, together there were 126 years of peace in the Northern part of Europe, which was called the Kalmar Union. She created that union and that is quite an accomplishment. Before her reign, the Nordic countries were at war and killing each other constantly, and the moment Sweden withdrew from the union, there was a blood bath in Stockholm in 1520 and from then on the battles continued. Right now we have another moment of peace in the region, but what she did back then was quite an achievement. I was captivated by the power of this little lady.

What was fascinating about Margrete?

She was also a mother. At the time, women could not reign unless they had a son. Margrete’s son died when he was 17. That was when she was beginning to establish the whole foundation of the union and the moment he died, she could no longer reign. She never saw her son dead and maybe this was because she needed to find another son. So, she quickly finds her sister’s grandson and takes him back to Scandinavia as a five-year-old boy, which means she can continue to reign. Later on, a man arrives claiming to be the son that died. So that whole mystery is very Shakespearean and a rather crazy story that was just so captivating. It was an amazing story for a movie. The story was made to be a movie. At the same time, we wanted to give her a voice that she was not given before. And we wanted people to know about her as almost no one did.

How did you start this project?

I received a script about her life. It covered her life from when she was born until she died. It was too long and not that interesting. But then I found this moment where a mysterious man came and claimed to be her son. My producer and I were interested in that mystery and the fact that the historical documents about these events had disappeared. So we found that there was an empty space for us to tell a story. We could make a period piece where we give her a face and a voice in the middle of a huge drama.

And not a lot of women reigned at the time. Did that fascinate you too?

The more we look, we find many stories about women in powerful positions that were not written. There are so many women’s stories that are waiting to be told and that is why we are here as filmmakers, telling those stories.

Margrete is a mother as you said, and she has a dilemma. She is a mother and a career woman. It is a very modern situation, isn’t it?

Once she stuck to me, everything about her becomes interesting. #metoo had not happened yet and I had no idea how current this film would be. We had no idea of this ten years ago when we began the project. Now, we hear from the audience that this was a much-needed movie. I also think it is because I need my own voice to be heard and I have a tool where I can do it. That is what we do as filmmakers since we are not politicians or historians. You don’t always know when you hit the right thing at the right moment, but you will always be true if you use yourself as a mirror to the material you will be mirroring your time – good or bad.

How true is the character to who the real Margrete was, do you think?

I am not so interested in that. That is history. What we did and were passionate about was (not) telling the story that we read in the books. The storyteller will always be part of the storytelling, so that is why Trine says that the story is told through my voice even though it is her voice as Margrete, who is saying the words. But we did want to get the historical moments right. This story is trying to tell moment by moment exactly what happened. The thing is that once you go into a real character, you have the information that the historians have given you, but then she walks from a to b where nobody is watching her and that is the movie maker’s moment. This is when I have a moment to create a story. When I read about her, I think I completely understood her from my perspective. In that sense, I created Margrete as I had read her, and then Trine comes in and then together, we decide how she will say the lines and how she moves. Step by step, as a team we discovered our truth in the script. It is a collaboration about how we see human behavior. There are so many dots we needed to connect, so it took a while

Do you think you were interested in her as a strong woman at a time when women were less powerful?

I think it dawned on me slowly. I did not think about it in the beginning. It was just a great story and a mystery. But being with Margrete and Trine for such a long time and understanding and listening to our audience at previews has been so amazing because people of all ages and all genders are saying that it is an important movie. It was something that dawned on me while I was doing it. I don’t really think I am political. My previous film was about a man, so I don’t think I am limited to only telling stories about women. The whole thing about women in art is that they make art about women and men, so it could also have been a king that I made a movie about. But the fact is that there was no king who did such a great effort as she did to make peace for a period of 126 years and had that as an agenda.

We don’t see as many female filmmakers in the business as male filmmakers. Do you think there are special challenges for women in the business?

Yes. Definitely. I think it has to do with behavior. We have been used to listening to one behavior for a long time. We have learned to feel that this is the way we should behave to be a good director and then when women arrive, a lot of us have to understand that behavior and act accordingly. But it might not be true behavior and true to who you really are. So it is important for all of us to understand that you can do it differently. It is not only that a woman is more motherly. It is not about that. It can also be a non-binary person. We all have different ways of looking at the world and we are all different. You can look at a face and it can be old and beautiful like Al Pacino. I don’t have to change my face and that is something we all have to do together. It is a struggle but it is a mutual struggle and it is not a struggle where women are against men because there are very smart guys, who are in the new world – modern men who are going with us. There are also women who are bitter and mad and that is not good either because it becomes a tough struggle. We have to be proud of our individual stories and we have to stand alone on the top and reign like Margrete. That is very lonely. Sometimes I feel very lonely. This film has been very successful and the reviews are amazing. The audience likes it. Sometimes I am sad that I am appreciated because I am used to being number two and all of a sudden I am standing there and I have to walk proudly with it and share it and show every young female – and every minority director – Black, homosexual, LGBTQ or whatever that we can do it and that we are changing now and that diversity is a beautiful thing.

Do you think there is such a thing as a female voice?

Once you say, male and female, you also have to add LGBTQ. I think each person has their individual voice and I think that diversity is much bigger than male and female. I have a very masculine voice sometimes and I have a very sensitive masculine voice and I have a very strong feminine voice. I have so many voices that I don’t even know who I am because that is not important actually.

Is it important to you that people do not change their faces to look younger?

Yes. Stop cutting or changing your face, and start breathing. Live your life. When I see an actress with a face that is altered, I cry. The face is what we speak through – we speak through the lines in our faces: the life that is reflected in our faces. Very often I say to actors and actresses when they come in that they need to stop for a moment: ‘You have a costume; you have your lines, and you have a face – and that is 40 years of life. So try saying the lines calmly because you bring so much with just your face. When you see Trine’s face in my film, you see what I mean, because if she had altered her face, I would have had one face throughout the film. But here, I have 40 faces, because every time she feels something, you see it in her skin. Her skin changes. If that had been cut into perfection, I would not have been able to tell a story of a woman with forty faces. That is the strength of my movie actually. You see it in Trine Dyrholm’s face.

Do you think this is a patriotic movie?

I am very proud of it. I think since I did The Bridge, I have been very close to Stockholm and as an actress, I was very close to it and skiing in Norway, so I always had the Nordic feeling I have always had a strong feeling of being Nordic. I knit Icelandic sweaters. We have Strindberg, Munch with The Scream, so Nordic Noir has been here forever. Even with the Vikings. We are just capturing it. That is the feeling I have here. I made The Bridge. This is the Nordic period piece. I am proud as a Nordic person because I feel we belong very much together and I am very proud of that. I want to be here and do my stuff. I need the light and the darkness.