The temperature only rises after Cleo (Thea Sofie Loch Næss) and Tobias (Adam Lundgren) leave the steam room in “Sauna Sickness” where working up a sweat had as much to do with the fact they can’t keep their hands off one another as the plumbing. It’s the dead of winter in Sweden where the couple have gone for a New Year’s vacation at Cleo’s mother’s house, but when the keys are nowhere to be found after their lovemaking, it quickly descends into a nightmare as Cleo and Tobias, clad only in bathrobes, stand out in the freezing cold, debating how best to break in.
As day turns to night, it isn’t just the sky that grows darker in Malin Barr’s barbed relationship comedy where a disagreement over the best way forward leads Tobias to points out what he feels are her weaknesses and stubbornly refuses to do much of anything while she tries to find help, ultimately racing down the road to locate another couple (Magnus Krepper and Sanna Krepper) who might be a little too in the holiday spirit to be of much use. When Tobias shows his true colors, it also reveals Barr to be an exciting new filmmaker, building on her work as an actress to find the various subtleties in how fast and thoroughly a love affair can go south. At least the scenery remains pretty throughout as Barr, now based in the U.S., returns to the country in which she was raised for its perfectly snow-capped trees as one year rolls into another and takes the lay of the land in other ways as Malin Gutke’s instinctive camerawork reflects the growing distance between the two main characters.
The 15-minute short is set to make a splash at Sundance where it premieres this week as part of the Short Film Program 1 and ahead of its debut, Barr generously took the time to talk about moving behind the camera from in front of it, creating the right atmosphere on set for her cast and working around nature.
How did this come about?
Storywise, it was inspired by many things. As a writer, you always take a little part of you for everything that you create, so it definitely has inspiration from a previous relationship of mine, but also stories of many women that I know, expanded into more cinematic language. I’m originally from Sweden, so that’s why I had this film in mind connecting back to my roots.
When you live in the States now, did you have much knowledge about the production infrastructure in Sweden?
I go back and forth a lot and I have a bit of a network there, but I definitely do have it more here [in the U.S.]. It was crucial that Malin Gutke, who’s my DP on the film, was the first person I had on the team. She’s incredible and I had one of my co-producers, Nina Lund, who also had worked with Malin before and through them, I started my team. Then it’s harder when you don’t know exactly [who’s in Sweden] and you haven’t worked so much as a director, but my lead actress Thea [Sofie Loch Naess], who’s absolutely astonishing, we worked together on a TV show where we were both acting, so I immediately thought, “She’s perfect for this,” and I thought it added so much that she was Norwegian and the rest of the cast is Swedish. [After that], it was like putting together any other project. You have one piece, and you don’t have a huge budget, but you pull in people as you go. It was challenging for a first time, but I’m so happy with everyone. I had the best cast, the best crew and it went pretty smooth considering the set and the temperature.
Did you actually have this particular location in mind? It does look particularly lovely in the snow.
Yeah, now that I’ve lived in the U.S. a little bit, I find things in Sweden so beautiful. I look at the pines now and [I think], “Wow, these trees are so pretty,” and you forget sometimes when you’re used to your surroundings. I wanted to set it in in a cold place and we shot in spring. We went looking for snow and we went all the way up north in Sweden. It was the worst snow year ever, so that was unlucky, but to me it was important as a layer to the story when it’s very much about the hot and cold and the ups and downs, the rollercoaster of emotions. When I wrote the script, it was an important factor to have the cold outside this hot sauna because it adds so much to the feeling of the lead character Cleo never feeling comfortable anywhere. She’s never safe and she’s always in a place of cold or hot.
It moves elegantly from day to night, which also plays into the overall tone. What was it like to actually pull that off on set?
That was also something I had in mind, feeling more and more scary and darker. We had three days of shooting, so it was a little difficult, especially getting around everyone’s schedule [since] my all my actors were really busy and we were getting people to come seven hours up north. It goes back to having planned everything very well and having a great team where we would jump from doing a scene in the sauna to jumping outside doing something on the road because we needed to get that shot in the same light that we had her walking on the street the previous day. It was always that jumping back and forth, but everyone was on point. So much can go wrong on set, but I’m happy we pulled it off.
Is it difficult filming inside a steamy sauna?
It was something I was a little nervous about before, even the performances and making sure everyone felt comfortable. It was very much a closed set and we found a sauna that was slightly bigger than the usual saunas, so that was helpful. Then it was my actors, my [director of photography] and then the [assistant director] would sit almost outside and somehow we all crouched into the sauna, squeezed in different corners. I was in one corner, they were acting, and then my DP [in another], and it was a little challenging at times, but it was all connected to making sure that people feel safe to create and comfortable in this space.
You mentioned Thea, but how did you find Adam to play the other half of this main couple?
He’s amazing. We knew each other a little bit before. I met him through a friend of mine here in the U.S. and I had him in mind for it. I told him about the story and at that point, Thea was already attached, so we did a meeting with the two of them and they just worked really well. He’s so lovely as a person, but he is so creepy in this role. Sometimes you’re not entirely sure how it’s going to work out, but they worked so well together. And then to play the other couple — Magnus Krepper, I’ve been a fan of for a long time since I was even younger and [I thought], “Man, that would be great and I learned that his wife [Sanna] was also an actress. She’s also wonderful and was with my previous agent in Sweden, so I just thought, “Wow, what if I can get the two of them to play this together?” I reached out and then I explained the project. And was very excited that they were excited to come up for one day and shoot this crazy, crazy scene. They were so, so fun.
Once you get it in the hands of the actors and you see their dynamic together, does it change any of your ideas about this or take it in directions you don’t expect?
It always does. It’s important to be flexible on set, even if I have my idea of how I want this to both look and feel. Of course, I will guide my actors in a direction, but it’s always wonderful to see how things pop up when they get to do their thing and they feel comfortable in the scene. Since I have an acting background myself and still acting, I think you’ve got to let your actors improv a little bit and feel out the scene so that they can feel like they’re in it and then I can always pull it back. There were definitely moments where we would run through whole scenes in a one take and everyone was standing behind the camera just like, “We felt it,” so there were so many beautiful things that came up, but we stayed mostly to script.
Did you actually have the directing bug for a while or did it come from being on other sets as an actor?
I think it’s been with me. I started off as a dancer and I used to choreograph as well, so that has another type of creativity and I’ve always liked creating things. Probably nine years ago, I started writing and I went back to a screenwriting program in Sweden during COVID and that’s when it took off. I had made shorts before that I had written but not directed and I thought I wasn’t a director. But then I realized that so much of the director role is directing the actors and that part I feel already very comfortable with. It feels very natural, and I feel like I know what I would need as an actor. Then the visual part of creating the imagery and cinematic language also connects a little bit to choreography. When I write, I always feel like I see exactly how everything is going to look. Having a wonderful DP on this, I planned everything out very deeply and then worked with her on that. And it’s so much fun. I don’t think if you would’ve asked me five years ago that I would direct, but now I feel like it is one of the things I enjoy the most, just getting to work with everyone. The collaboration and the team when you’re on set is one of the most magical things, getting to be there.
What’s it like getting to Sundance with this?
It’s so exciting. I had the dream of getting into Sundance with this film and then my plan was Göteborg after, and now I have them both lined up and it feels insane and a little unreal. When Sundance called me and asked, “Do you want to screen it?” I had that moment when you’re picking up the phone and you’re like, “What? “Of course I want to.” I was so overwhelmed and it took a few weeks before it even felt real. Now, it’s starting to feel real and I just am overwhelmed with excitement. I can’t wait to meet all the other filmmakers, see some amazing films, and then experiencing my film through the audience perspective and see how they feel and react to it. Everything that comes after that, I can’t wait.
“Sauna Sickness” will screen at the Sundance Film Festival as part of Shorts Program 1 on January 23rd at 5:30 pm at the Broadway Centre Cinemas in Salt Lake City, January 25th at 1:50 pm at Megaplex Redstone, January 31st at 10:20 am at the Megaplex Redstone and February 1st at 9 am at Holiday Village Cinemas. It will be also available to stream on the Sundance virtual platform from January 29th through February 1st.