Status: 19.08.2024 20:02
Kiel-based filmmaker Wilfried Hauke follows the footsteps of Astrid Lindgren during the Second World War. The then unknown author wrote her war diaries and invented Pippi Longstocking.
Around two handfuls of people are milling around Wilfried Hauke at a small bathing area on the Kleiner Plöner See (Plön district). It is a busy jumble of camerawoman, sound assistant, production manager, production designer and co. The Kiel filmmaker and his team are working on a cinema documentary about the world-famous Swedish author Astrid Lindgren, who died in Stockholm in 2002. The documentary parts have already been shot on location in Sweden. Wilfried Hauke met Astrid Lindgren’s family for this: her daughter Karin Nyman, now 90 years old, her granddaughter and great-grandson. Now the scenic filming is about to begin in Holstein Switzerland. The backdrop: sun, lakes all around, forest and the Wittmoldt estate, a stately manor house that towers over everything. Wilfried Hauke chose the filming location deliberately: “This is Bullerbü live,” he says.
War diaries and the invention of Pippi Longstocking
Scene preparations: Wilfried Hauke discusses with his camerawoman Sabine Panossian.
Thematically, the film revolves around the years of the Second World War. From 1939 until the end of the war, Astrid Lindgren wrote her war diaries, which were only published posthumously by her family in 2015. In them she wrote about the atrocities of Hitler and Stalin, the misery of Jewish refugees on the Baltic Sea, the privileged everyday life in Sweden and her work for the Swedish secret service. Lindgren, who was still completely unknown at the time, also invented her character “Pippi Longstocking” in the early 1940s. What were initially just oral stories for her daughter Karin about the self-confident girl, she put on paper, and it became a worldwide success after the war.
The secret of the power of Lindgren’s books
According to Wilfried Hauke, who grew up with the Lindgren stories of Pippi, Ronja the Robber’s Daughter and all the others and now reads them to his own grandchildren, the period from 1939 to 1945 is particularly important for a better understanding of Astrid Lindgren’s life and work. “When you read the diaries, you understand what is actually behind this literature. What the secret of the power of her books is,” he says. “The experience of a cruel war, men who lead the world to the brink, and it is precisely in this time that she invents this strong girl and counters the horror with a childlike, humanistic message.”
A Swedish lake in the Plön district
It looks Swedish, but is located in the middle of Schleswig-Holstein: the Wittmoldt estate in Holstein Switzerland.
The film team is currently preparing a scene that takes place in Sweden in 1942: Astrid Lindgren and her husband Sture go to the lake with their nine-year-old daughter Karin. The latter is played by six-year-old Edda Marta, who is not in the mood for an interview today. She only reveals this much: “I like Pippi Longstocking the most because she is so strong.” The Swedish actress Sofia Pekkari, who plays Astrid Lindgren, has also been fascinated by Lindgren’s literature and life since she was a child.
“I never thought I would discover anything new about Astrid Lindgren, but working on the war diaries has given me a completely different perspective on her.” Sofia Pekkari, actress
Persuasion work in Sweden
They play Astrid Lindgren and her husband Sture: Sofia Pekkari and Peter Jannsson.
Wilfried Hauke first had to convince the Lindgren family of his idea for the film. “That took a year,” he says. He had to build up trust, especially with Lindgren’s daughter Karin. “She is the only one who still has memories of her mother during that time. She was afraid that I might tell a false story about Astrid.” In the film, the camera follows the 90-year-old as she leafs through her mother’s handwritten war diaries and talks about them with her daughter and grandson. The scenic parts of the film, shot in Schleswig-Holstein, do not contain any dialogue. “They are accompanied by passages read from the diaries,” explains Wilfried Hauke.
Film to be shown in cinemas and on television from spring 2025
The scene at the lake has now been filmed. Little Edda Marta is off work today. She won’t be back on for a few days. Filming in Wittmoldt, supported by the Moin Film Fund Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, will continue until August 23rd. The film will then be shown from spring 2025 on NDR, on Arte and in cinemas. Just in time for Pippi Longstocking’s 80th birthday.
More information
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Schleswig-Holstein Magazine
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Schleswig-Holstein Magazine | 19.08.2024 | 7:30 p.m.
