The Film Verdict: The original Danish title of your new film, Stille Liv, translates as “quiet life”. Why is it called The Quiet Migration in English?
Malene Choi: The international title came first, as we were developing the script at screenwriting labs. I thought it was an apt description of what transnational adoption is. We then had to choose a different title for the Danish market because the literal translation of the English one didn’t sound good. That said, my publicist in Denmark isn’t really happy with either of them, because one sounds too political, and the other doesn’t really say much about the movie, even in an arthouse context.
TFV: Speaking of politics, what’s it like to have a movie that deals with nationalism and identity premiering in Germany, which has its own complicated history in that regard?
MC: I’ll definitely be interested in addressing the topic of racism at the post-screening Q&As, and how it can come from unexpected places, as seen in the film and based on my personal experience. I must admit I don’t know much about Germany’s current record with far-right movements. In Denmark, their rise is cyclical, it comes and goes.
TFV: On the subject of identity, do you view the film as a Danish story dealing with Korean culture, or a Korean film set in Denmark?
MC: The former, because only a small section of the film takes place in South Korea. My previous film [2018’s The Return, a documentary about Korean-born Danish adoptees rediscovering their roots] was shot entirely in Seoul, so that felt more Korean. But I definitely wanted the two aspects to blend from the beginning, with the news report about South Koreans having relatives in North Korea they don’t get to see. I wanted to address the dual migration that has taken place over the years.
TFV: The film is bookended by sweeping panoramic views of the farm owned by the family, and all other shots are static. Was that always the plan?
MC: The opening scene was planned that way from the start because I wanted to show the farm in full, but we didn’t have the ending until I was in the editing room and decided to have the same sequence in reverse. A bit like closing the book, as you said. As for the rest of the film, I like static shots because they allow me to stay with the characters for a longer period of time and work on the intensity of the scenes.
TFV: Was that also helpful for shooting during a pandemic? Most scenes take place indoors, the camera doesn’t move much, or at all, and usually there are no more than three actors at a time.
MC: We did shoot in between lockdowns in Denmark, that is true. And there was an actual lockdown in place in Seoul when we filmed the market scene, but it felt like a normal shoot, to be honest.
–Interview by Max Borg
