Join WhatsApp Channel
Join Telegram Channel This corrosive comedy around an unwanted pregnancy can be seen on Arte. We met its director during its cinema release.
Little gem from Norway, Ninjababy is scheduled this Wednesday on Arte in the second part of the evening, after Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Brussels. Chantal Akerman's film lasts 3 hours 20 minutes and will be broadcast very late, at 12:10 a.m. Fortunately, it is already visible (and for a month) in streaming on Arte.TV.
Ninjababy tells the story of Rakel, a 23-year-old young woman who discovers that she has become pregnant after a one-night stand… two and a half months from due date! This unwanted pregnancy gives rise to a corrosive comedy, far from the endless odes to triumphant motherhood. Angry at this body which betrayed her, Rakel frees herself by starting a dialogue with the future offspring, a penciled and animated silhouette which does not have its tongue in its pocket and which only she can see.
We were able to discuss it with its director, Yngvild Sve Flikke, when it was released in France in 2022.
How was the idea of Ninjababy ?
Yngvild Sve Flikke: From the outset, I envisaged and imagined this film as a journey. I wanted to talk about pregnancy, a condition that I myself have experienced twice, but through the prism of comedy. The way that seemed most appropriate to me to tell the story of the crazy moments, these successive ups and downs that we go through in this state. I found that nothing better than animation could allow me to represent it accurately. It was at this moment that I remembered The Art of Fallingthe graphic novel by Inga Sætre which directly addressed this subject and I contacted her so that we could build together Ninjababy from his work. If she had told me no, I would have abandoned the project. Because only his punchy animation style would be able to translate into images with the tone that I wanted to use for this story. From there, a challenge nevertheless presented itself to me. I had already used animation in documentaries but I didn't know if I would be able to create an animated character from scratch and integrate it into my plot.
How did you precisely construct this character of your heroine's future “baby”, an animated silhouette who dialogues with her without language and which obviously only she can see?
It took us a long time to find it. We went through several really ugly, very ugly versions of fetuses… playing on our memories of mothers. (laughs) And, in the end, he has a lot more of a baby face compared to what we had first envisioned. This character was in our eyes a pillar of the film: we counted on him to bring humor of course but also emotion, so that the audience could become attached to him. All this also played a role in the moments when we integrated her passages into the story, right up to the editing room, where we added scenes that Inga drew because there were gaps…
What has evolved the most between the graphic novel and your film?
Its conclusion because the graphic novel ends just after the birth while I for my part wanted an ending that would allow me to really get to the bottom of the different characters. But also and above all the age of the heroine. In the graphic novel, she is 16 years old. And that I immediately explained to Inga that I wished she was older. Because I didn't want a film that deals with teenage pregnancy but to be able to develop a more ambivalent character, certainly totally adolescent in her external attitude – her daily life totally assumed, made of sex and one-night stands – but more mature inside so that this pregnancy has an impact on her and her way of considering her future. Like a particle accelerator. But none of this could have taken shape if we hadn't been casting for Kristine Kujath Thorp who immediately understood this character, her moods, her behavior. She is a very intuitive actress. I must have seen a hundred actresses before her and I was starting to despair. This is his very first feature film. And since then, she hasn't stopped making films. She deserves it: she's a raw talent.
What was the concrete contribution of your co-writer Johan Fasting?
Huge in a very short time. I urgently needed a co-writer because I was working on a mini-series at the same time, Heimebane. Johan was extremely efficient and he also immediately understood the film I had in mind, the idea that comedy would take precedence over drama, despite the delicate subject. It also made it possible to clarify the character of Ninjababy thanks to his fresh perspective. Without him, the end result would not have been the same.
Through its way of playing with animation, your film evokes the work of Michel Gondry. Did this reference accompany your creative process?
If this film is inspired above all by my experience of becoming a mother, Michel Gondry has indeed a major influence for all our work on animation. I am a great admirer of the playful side of his cinema. And that's what I wanted to aim for. Ninjababy