Danish Filmmaker Making Way in Hollywood

Los Angeles, California, 2017-Jun-05 — /EPR Network/ — Manuel von E. Dixen, an upcoming filmmaker from Denmark is breaking into the underground film-world of Hollywood with his Science Fiction short film, Stronger (Original title: Stærkere). It was his first short film out of film school, sponsored solely by friends, family and himself. Before the short was even finished, he moved to Los Angeles to start his career there. Before releasing the movie in Denmark it was submitted to festivals in USA, where it was nominated for Best Science Fiction Short, and won an award at International Independent Short Film Festival. After winning this award, it was released in Denmark and on YouTube.

Elias Munk, who played the title character, had just gotten back from studying in Los Angeles, and the two immediately started developing the character Jonas. In the search for the perfect actress to Portray Julie, Jonas sister, many castings were held, but none seemed to match in just the way the Director, Manuel von E. Dixen, wanted. The project was almost cancelled, as he felt that, without the right actress, this story wouldn’t come to life properly. Only by chance, by helping a friend out on another short film (Boxer), he found the actress he wanted. The only problem was, she was not an actress and had no interest in becoming one. She is a professional female boxer, and worked on the short film Boxer as a consultant and trainer. After much convincing, she agreed to take on the project and she was given 4 weeks of intensive acting school with a private teacher.

In the beginning of Stronger, the brother and sister are skinning a goat, presumably for them to eat (Post-Apocalyptic setting). Originally the director wanted a lamb, but due to laws and registrations they couldn’t get one and would have to make one out of prosthetics. This proved too expensive. Reluctantly Manuel von E. Dixen then agreed on using a goat. They had an actual dead goat, with actual guts in the scene, which was given to them by a farm, who had to put the goat down anyways, due to an infection. The goats real life brother was then used for the scenes where the goat is alive.

The scene of them gutting the goat proved much more challenging to film than originally thought. This was due to the set design. In the story, the brother and sister are living in a house, in an air-tight plastic tent with a Clean Air Tank (The setting is that the air itself, is so polluted that we would suffocate by breathing without gas masks or air filters). The set designer wanted to build a fake tent that would let them ventilate the inside, but Manuel von E. Dixen refused this, as it wouldn’t feel real. He made the set designer build an actual air tight tent inside the house, with an air tank. This meant that the smell of the dead goat was so overpowering that the cast and crew had to take multiple breaks in order to not throw up, making the scene go over schedule by a full day.

Manuel von E. Dixen has stated that if he could do it again, the only thing he would change is the casting of the Woman (Who shows up in the middle of the movie). As the actress playing the Woman was very pale and blond, same as the Actress playing Julie, there’s a confusion as to which is which. Their wardrobe doesn’t help the audience distinguish the two either. Manuel von E. Dixen has stated that he would’ve preferred to have the woman being played by either an Asian or a Black woman instead.

The full movie is available to watch for free on YouTube. Below is a link to the trailer.