As The Ugly Stepsister premieres in Sundance, the ambitious Norwegian debut film’s writer/director and veteran producer discuss financing and adding feminist body horror to the classic Cinderella fairytale.
Forget sweet Disney princesses -- Emilie Blichfeldt’s The Ugly Stepsister (Den stygge stesøsteren) re-imagines the classic Cinderella fairy tale with a new feminist outlook and moments of body horror.
Norwegian writer/director Blichfeldt makes her feature directorial debut with the film, which follows Elvira (Lea Myren), who will stop at nothing to win the affections of the handsome prince. She’s willing not only to sabotage her confident stepsister, but also to mutilate her own body to conform to the beauty standards of the day.
In the new episode of the Nordic Film Talks podcast, Blichfeldt remembers how seeing David Cronenberg’s Crash while she studied in film school opened her mind to a kind of horror film that wasn’t about jump scares. “I just thought, ‘What the hell is this? This is genius.’ That became my entry ticket to the body horror universe.”
She says body horror is powerful not just for gross-out potential, but because “it reminds me of how I’m flesh and blood, and so vulnerable. I wanted to fill these body horror scenes with the complexity that I love.” That complexity has now landed the film the opening night spot at Sundance’s Midnight programme.
Blichfeldt was thinking a lot about “female characters who have a hard time fitting in”, and had an image of Cinderella trying to cram her too-large feet into glass slippers (Blichfeldt knows how that feels, laughing about her size 42 shoes). She went back to the original Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella, in which the stepsisters mutilate their own feet trying to fit the slipper.
She didn’t want to copy the Grimms, however. “What's great with fairy tales is that it's a story that's alive,” Blichfeldt adds. “It's a story that we've shared between ourselves for so many years. And now I wanted to tell it myself and include what I thought was interesting. Put my own spin on it.”
She explores very relevant contemporary themes like beauty standards and the quest for bodily perfection. The director explains: “I’m very interested in this culture around femininity and what we do to ourselves, where this comes from, and how deeply ingrained it is in our culture and story as females.”
Maria Ekerhovd of Mer Film, known for productions such as War Sailor (Krigsseileren) and Let The River Flow (Ellos eatnu - La elva leve), says The Ugly Stepsister has built on the genre work she’s done like Eskil Vogt’s The Innocents (De uskyldige). “I want to do more genre films after this experience. It's such a pleasure to see the audience really physically react to what you present them. The film has this deeper effect as well.”
Ekerhovd, who is also in post-production on Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, had been impressed with Blichfeldt’s talent since she saw her short film How Do You Like My Hair?, back in 2014. “I was taken by her film, but also by her energy,” the producer remembers in the podcast interview. “I was actually involved in The Ugly Stepsister from very early on, from the get-go. I just thought it was a genius idea. She was a young talent who had such a strong story and such a strong will in how she wanted to make it.” She also liked Blichfeldt’s slogan: “Go big or go home.”
The Ugly Stepsister is more ambitious in scale than most debut features – it is budgeted at about €5.5m and shot in 32 days (mostly in Poland).
Ekerhovd recruited co-producers Zentropa Sweden, Motor of Denmark and Lava Films of Poland. Backers also include the Norwegian Film Institute, the Polish Cash Rebate and the Polish Film Institute, the Swedish Film Institute, the Danish Film Institute, Eurimages, DR, Vestnorsk Filmsenter, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, Film i Väst, and Zephyr.
The Ugly Stepsister has its world premiere on Jan 23 at Sundance, followed by a European premiere in Berlinale’s Panorama section. Memento handles sales, and the film has already sold to Shudder for North America, UK and Australia/New Zealand; Scanbox will release it in Scandinavia.
In the full podcast episode, we hear more about Ekerhovd’s and Blichfeldt’s collaboration for many years of development; and about how the director found the visual style of the film; doing research on medical devices from the 19th century; and moving beyond archetypes to empathize with the stepsister characters.
Listen to the podcast here:
The Nordic Film Talks is available for free on Nordisk Film & TV Fond’s website’s Industry Insights section (CLICK HERE) and distributed through major podcast platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Amazon, Castbox, Deezer, Podcast Addict, Podchaser and JioSaavn.
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