Director Liv Karin Dahlstrøm and Producer Isak Eymundsson have been sweeping the boards at film festivals throughout the world, having been selected for 13 festivals and taking home the Oscar-qualifying award at the Seattle International Film Festival. The film stars the well-known and popular Norwegian actress Marit Adeleide Andreassen.

Trailer WOMEN&WINE (short film) from Ape&Bjørn AS on Vimeo.

Women and Wine is a humorous film about the fear of losing a friend. Turid is attending her close friends fiftieth anniversary, but during the party, she comes to realize she is no longer amongst her closest friends. Thus Turid starts a game to make her mark, and the party turns out to involve much more than singing and wine.

We caught up with Liv, to talk about her must see film.

First of all congratulations on Women and Wine. 

It’s been selected for different film festivals and it also won a few prizes. How does that make you feel?

I feel humble and I’m happy that so many people saw and like the film. That’s the point of making it. Thanks 🙂

Can you tell us a little bit more about the movie?

Women & Wine is a drama-comedy for adults. It´s about Turid´s fear of being replaced by a long-term and important friendship. The film is about the fear of depleting personality, about friendship and how far jealousy can go in certain situations.

I am fascinated by how humans interact in social settings; how we protect and defend our pride and jealousy, and at the same time always try so hard to fit in amongst others. I am inspired by the battles we face in our everyday-life (or even: throughout our tough lives).

Was there any reason why you chose to make a film in which women are the main characters?

No special reasons. The idea came from a situation between a group of women. Obviously, something else happens when there are only ladies together, without men – but the film could also be made about a friendship between men. I have actually considered doing that. 🙂

So it’s about friendship but also a little bit of betrayal? Where did the idea of this story come?

I´ve actually been in the same «mask scenario» my self, which was quite similar to the film’s Inciting Incident. A friend and me «kidnapped» a third friend as part of a bachelorette party, we all wore masks and the groom only recognized me and not our friend. Fortunately, the situation didn´t cause any drama or uncomfortable situation, but it was at this moment the other writer Thorkild and I saw the potential of a jealousy inflicted drama and this became the base for the short film.

I am fascinated by how humans interact in social settings; how we protect and defend our pride and jealousy, and at the same time always try so hard to fit in amongst others. I am inspired by the battles we face in our everyday-life (or even: throughout our tough lives).

In the movie, we see some friends having a great time and it seems incredibly real. How did you cast the actresses? Were they friends before the movie cause their friendship in the movie seems very genuine.

The ladies were not friends from before. I knew the main character, Marit A. Andreassen, and we had worked together before – this laid a good foundation for working with the relationships between the characters. We talked a lot about the fear of losing the friendship and were open about feelings that are embarrassing to talk about. Before we filmed, we improvised a lot to get a natural tone between the ladies.

Just one last question: Do you have any other projects coming up?

Right now I’m in the pre-production of a children’s tv-series for NRK-super (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation). It´s a comedic love-drama for children between 9-12 years. After this, we´re starting the production of a TV series for adults based on the short film Women & Wine where I and the other writer of Woman & Wine are creators. It´s going to be very fun, scary and exciting!