She – Hero, tells the story of Romy, a 7 year old, who looks for her lost budgie Mimi. It is a lovely children’s film about loss and a beautiful nature film. Shot and set in a Slovak forest, it envelops its main character, and its audience, in nature’s sight and sounds.
Ahead of the film’s Australian debut this Saturday, we chatted with Fornay about the experience of making the film, working with children, and the green manifesto she created.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
In this lovely film, you tell a very simple story: one day, a girl looks for her missing budgie in a forest. Is this where the idea of the story started?
Mira Fornay: Well, when I was a kid, at eight years old, I had my first budgie, and she flew away. This story came to mind because it was lockdown, and I was going out with my nephews and the daughters of my best friend from childhood. We were heading to the forests of my childhood. I was visiting my hometown, Bratislava, for only one week. But the lockdown came, and I had to stay there for three months. It was kind of like getting to return to my past—my own childhood. I had just finished the premiere of my last film, which was a very heavy political film about domestic violence, and I felt drained. I was looking for a story that would give me my power back. You know, nurture me. I wanted a story in a forest with very innocent beings: animals and kids.
The forest in Romy’s story feels grand and mystical. In creating a children’s adventure story, what did you draw upon?
Mira Fornay: All my films are from the point of view of the main character—adult or child. What inspired me was not fairy tales but rather Joseph Campbell’s method—the hero’s journey. It’s a method where you go through archetypes. You encounter archetypal figures, like the Emperor from Tarot, for instance. I underwent training because I was interested in this approach, and I adapted it for children.
It’s a fascinating method when you meet archetypal characters and learn about yourself. And, of course, you cannot do it the same way with children. As it is, you must adjust it. So, before I finalised the script, I went through a children’s version of a hero’s journey. Hence the title, She – Hero.
You open with this 360-degree pan shot, and instead of focusing on Romy, we see strangers drift in and out of view. The story feels unconstrained by a script. There’s a free-play feeling to it, that something ‘unscripted’ could happen at any moment.
Mira Fornay: I call it organic filmmaking, so I’m just writing the things for the first location and actors. Then I write the story for them. That’s why it’s very scripted, but I do extensive research in that area. Always. So, that’s why maybe it’s the method that looks so authentic. The surprise can happen because you know the area, so you can be prepared for it.
The film feels very unscripted, but it’s actually all scripted. When you look at the opening shot, you can find all the characters from the story. And it’s a very staged opening shot. We did 14 takes, and we were looking for the right compositions of those strangers who later play in the film. But there are moments, of course, when it’s unscripted. For example, the aunt, and the man on the boat, he was a local, there was a lot of little houses in the forest. And those locals started to be kind of interested in what we are doing there. And they want to play. They want to act in my film. And I say, okay.
There is also the in-between place of nature. In the opening shot we are under the concrete construction of the highway. There are places in the cities where nature kind of breaks in and takes the place back. Usually, these places are scary. There are no playgrounds; they are not nice, but there is nature. There are even studies about these kinds of places in between the cities where nature is kind of like hitting the concrete. And you know, like Chernobyl is an extreme place like this, where it’s abandoned by humans and nature slowly gets back. And we neglect these places instead of supporting nature; we destroy nature and build houses or supermarkets and everything there.
We shot the film during the COVID because all supermarkets and all the shop shopping malls were closed. Everyone was in the forest, you know, it was full of people. It was so beautiful. The forest was full of people like in the supermarket, but they are not buying anything.
Mira Fornay
Can you talk about your intuitive method of storytelling and what it produces when working with child actors?
Mira Fornay: The script itself is intuitive in a way. I spent a lot of time with actors to get on the same kind of vibe. It’s easy when you listen to children. You must listen to them. Like, you must listen to an adult actor. But when you listen to a child, it’s really rewarding because the child gives you a lot of inspiration back. I’m not saying adults don’t do that; they do. But a child is authentic.
Romy is an introvert. It doesn’t look like this in the film, but she is absolutely introverted. But you must give space to people to co-create with you. Especially with children, it’s not like you go from here to here. No. They played a lot of games. We talked a lot. We also discussed the production aspects so they can express what they don’t like and how they want things done.
We worked a maximum of seven hours per day. That was the limit. We took breaks when we felt the kids were too trained or too exhausted. I think that’s how you produce with children—you just listen to them and let them participate. And the same goes for animals and the forest. Then you have very beautiful things happen.
What does green filmmaking mean?
Mira Fornay: I wrote a green manifesto and am now trying to implement it in my next film. You can create a good story in a sustainable way that takes care of others and is empathic. So, I make time to research locations, find actors, and then I write a script for them, which is not only economical but also sustainable.
You have to take time. It’s a slow method, but it’s very rewarding. You go to the forest and understand that there are old, wise trees there that are beautiful. I’m an ecologist, and I really have this sadness in me. I have this grief in a way and anxiety about all this wastage: all the catering, all that rubbish left behind.
So I tried with small crews. Now I’m trying to enlarge the crew while remaining sustainable. But sustainable, not in a bureaucratic way. I’m speaking about the real feel of ecology. So, you do things thinking about your connection with nature as nature is a part of the story, not just a decoration.
We cycled everywhere. We had a maximum of three cars. We had one electric car and one production car, which was outside the forest because the forest was a protected area. The kids used an electric car, but otherwise, we cycled everywhere. And for lunches, we recycled.
You can have rules, bureaucracies, applications, but if you don’t have it in your heart, you can’t do any good for nature.
She – Hero screens at Lido Cinemas, on Saturday, 19 October.