Interview: Jean-Claude Galli
The King of Switzerland was the smuggler: Walter Sturm (1942-1999) escaped from Swiss prisons several times in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. With “Storm: Until We Die or Be Free”, Joel Basman (31) as a gentle criminal is on cinemas now. Marie Linberger (41), legendary Sturm lawyer, Barbara Hogg (1946-2005) played a major role in it.
Blake: When you were born in 1980, can you remember the time when Walter Sturm was a famous person?
Marie Leuenberger: I was still very young at the time. But everyone born in 1975 and above always had a smile on their face when I said I would soon appear in a movie about Stürm. Then they said, “Oh, Storm, that was us on the kitchen table.” “We were thrilled when it broke out again.” I can tell from these reactions that it was a “number”.
What made you choose to take on the role of his attorney?
The complexity of both characters and that they do not fit any cliché. It’s even more evident with her because she’s one of those rare female characters in a movie who isn’t defined by relationship, kids, or family. Hug is a woman who stands up for herself, and fights for her point of view, very aggressively verbally, but also physically. It does not take into account himself or others. You smoke, you drink, you swear, you argue and whistle. Even the first version of the script in 2016 was very sensual and read almost like a novel. The fact that the start of filming was rescheduled multiple times was beneficial to the film. Each new version was more compact and more passionate.
At first glance, Hug and Stürm seem completely different. What is the relationship between the two?
They are two worlds that revolve around each other, never finding each other, but feeling a constant attraction to each other. This love story fascinated me so much. Reading the text was a rollercoaster of laughter, howling, pain and despair, very complex and multi-layered. And I thought: Oh my God, how do I do this now? Also because my personality is very different from Haig. It was a huge step for me to get involved with this woman, and there was a risk in photographing her. Like standing in front of a picture of Robbins that almost kills me. The difficulty was to be able to portray this Barbara Hogg in such a way as to emotionally evoke something similar in the audience as it does in myself. Especially since there’s also the real Barbara Hogg and I’ve never personified someone in my work who actually existed at some point. This is an honor and a burden, because you want to treat this person with the greatest possible respect and fairness.
And you don’t have a real standard…
Exactly, I’ve never really been able to get to know Hug personally, and nothing else was tangible. She talked to her buddies and dialysis patients about what it was like to be diagnosed with the kidney disease she had suffered. I looked at the pictures, that’s all I have. The way I portray it in the movie is somewhat fictional. We talk about “real events,” but we’ve already taken artistic liberties. It was helpful because I couldn’t imitate Hug because of the incomplete form. Mrs. Di can be imitated, but not hers. Most of all, I had the script. This is why I had to break free from the real Barbara Hug and go back to my novel. Carefully move the painting I saw before my inner eyes onto the canvas, piece by piece, each stone scene – like a mosaic.
Are you satisfied with the overall picture?
I’m – and I rarely say something like that – really proud of this movie. I think all the sections gave this movie very well. And that is, of course, thanks to director Oliver Reese, for bringing us together to present his vision in his incredibly gentle and imaginative way.
Joel Basman on “The Storm”: “Robin Hood’s name would be wrong.”(01:28)
There is an incredible amount of smoking in Sturm. Hug, in particular, is almost not seen without a cigarette. Was this a problem?
I myself am an occasional smoker, but I prefer to describe myself as a non-smoker. Yes, that was something that frightened me. There are many scenes where Hug smokes and smoking is not good for me. But strangely enough, while playing, smoking happened. Only when I look at it now I am amazed at how I managed to do this. Basically, Hog’s smoking crutch or crutch are great ways to add more color to a look.
How do you rate the love story between Hug and Stürm, which is alluded to several times in the film?
I can only point to Oliver Reese. At first it was about directing a movie about the storm. In the research, Hug’s name and the relationship between the two pop up time and time again. Strong sympathy and speculation that it could have been more. It cannot be proven. That was the fictional moment for screenwriting: to say we’re making a love story out of it, too. In the recordings of Stürm biographer Reto Kohler’s interview with Hug in the early 2000s, you can feel her fascination with Stürm. And also an understanding of his complex ideas about freedom. Philosophically, they must have a similar concept of justice. They lived it differently. You are with the law behind you, he is without law, against order. They were diametrically opposed to each other.
Doesn’t the storm appear in the movie in a rather mild light?
barely. He does not appear as a good-natured hero who shares his fortune among the poor. He selfishly wanted a fairer justice system and did not pursue any political interests of the common people. Even if his objections and requests could be interpreted differently. What he was certainly very committed to: Even when you’re locked up, you have a right to dignity and humane treatment, including edible foods like Birchermüesli, which appears several times in the film. He believed in the rule of law. Because escaping is not punishable in itself, but he was punished more and more, he felt that it was not fair. Anak also campaigned against this abuse. We do not glorify the storm. But we give it a voice. And with Hug, you can also fall in love with him a little bit. But at the same time, his criminal actions alienate viewers. You suffer with both to the end.
From theater to cinema
Raised in Basel as the daughter of a German mother and Swiss father, Marie Leuenberger completed her acting training at the Otto Falkenberg School in Munich(d) until 2002. After that she became part of the ensemble Schauspielhaus Hamburg. The mother of two had a huge hit with “Die Standesbeamtin” (2009), for which she won the Swiss Film Award for Best Actress. In 2017, her biggest box office success was followed by ‘The Divine Order’. She was last seen in the German series “Blackout”. Leuenberger lives in Berlin.
Raised in Basel as the daughter of a German mother and Swiss father, Marie Leuenberger completed her acting training at the Otto Falkenberg School in Munich(d) until 2002. After that she became part of the ensemble Schauspielhaus Hamburg. The mother of two had a huge hit with “Die Standesbeamtin” (2009), for which she won the Swiss Film Award for Best Actress. In 2017, her biggest box office success was followed by ‘The Divine Order’. She was last seen in the German series “Blackout”. Leuenberger lives in Berlin.
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