For his feature film debut Armand, Norwegian filmmaker Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, grandson of the legendary Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman, won the Caméra d’Or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival. Established in 1978, the Caméra d’Or honours the best debut feature film at Cannes. Previous winners include some of the most significant voices in cinema today, such as Steve McQueen for Hunger, Lukas Dhont for Girl, Jafar Panahi for The White Balloon, Tran Anh Hung for The Scent of Green Papaya, and Jim Jarmusch for Stranger Than Paradise.
This August, Ullmann Tøndel brought Armand to Edinburgh for its UK premiere at the 77th Edinburgh International Film Festival, where it was featured in the Out of Competition strand. I sat down with Ullmann Tøndel at The Caledonian during the festival to discuss his debut film.
Armand follows Elisabeth (Renate Reinsve), an actress and single mother, who finds herself entangled in a tense situation when her son, Armand, is accused of abuse by a classmate. Called into an after-hours parent-teacher conference, she confronts alarming allegations that spark a web of accusations among parents and school staff. As the drama unfolds in the empty classrooms and long corridors, the focus shifts away from the original incident between the children, taking a disturbing turn in an unpredictable direction.
Growing up with grandparents who were giants in cinema history, Ullmann Tøndel acknowledges that he “probably gets things stimulated, like, fantasy-wise in some cases,” but he insists they don’t have a direct influence on his filmmaking. Instead, he draws inspiration from Andrei Tarkovsky’s Ivan’s Childhood, particularly a scene set in the forest, which feels like “a dance between the camera and the actors,” with “the actors moving in and out of close-ups” and “big master shots” that “just happens so organically.” This scene, as he explains, became an obsession of his.
He also cites visual inspiration from Kubrick’s The Shining, specifically the intense red bathroom scene, which he describes as “so beautiful and so illustrative.” Additionally, Luis Buñuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie influenced a recurring motif in his film, where a faculty member’s consistent nosebleed interrupts intense moments between the adults, just as Buñuel’s dinner party scenes are constantly interrupted. He further mentions that “how Spielberg constructs his shots” also plays a significant role in shaping his visual language.
Talking about working with Renate Reinsve, who won Best Actress at Cannes in 2021, Ullmann Tøndel says that he had “worked with her on a short film before” and saw something “really strong and fierce” in her. “There was a brutality in her acting,” he remarks. For the role of Elisabeth, he decides to “challenge her.” He praises her as “smart, analytical and intuitive,” adding that “she brought a lot of herself into this role, not her private life but her own thoughts into the character.”
In Armand, Ullmann Tøndel crafted scenes for Reinsve that beautifully showcase the full breadth and depth of her talent, allowing her to stretch beyond limits and reveal her abilities as an actress. Reflecting on a particularly demanding and astonishing acting sequence, he explains the working progress behind this scene, “There was one or two sentences in the script, but in the film, she laughs for a long time, and she cries. She asked me how long she needed to laugh. I answered: a very long time. Maybe seven minutes or something. She said okay. Then, she worked with that on her own.”
To add more layers to her role, Ullmann Tøndel “makes her a public figure and an actress,” explaining that “people do have a lot of prejudice or conception on how an actress is.” He continues, “Is she real, or is she acting in real life, or is she playing with us, you?” These questions swirl around her character, challenging not only her but also forcing us to confront our own prejudices and perceptions.
In discussing the theme and message of the piece, he suggests that “it has always been subjective what is true” in our society. We “try to find the truth,” but often “lose track because of everything else, such as personal stuff.” He adds that we tend to “remove responsibility from ourselves” and “create a lot of fuss around just to remove ourselves farther away from the truth.” This, he explains, leads to “all these distracting things that take us away from what is the actual case.” That’s why, in the film, “there is a very quite satirical element,” as “the film’s premise is what happened between two boys, but then we kind of moved away from that.”
Speaking about the audience’s experience, he shares that what makes him happiest is “when they have been on an emotional journey.” He acknowledges that “not everything in this film is logical,” so viewers “have to kind of feel [their] way through it.” In doing so, he believes that “they can learn something about themselves,” including “their own triggers” and “their own emotional landscape.” He concludes, “if somebody does that, it’s great for me.”
As a Caméra d’Or winner, he also shares his advice for aspiring filmmakers near the end of our conversation:: “Don’t be afraid of taking chances.” “It’s a big privilege to make movies and, if you can only make one, you should just do whatever your intuition tells you.”
Armand had its UK premiere at the 77th Edinburgh International Film Festival and is currently seeking UK distribution.
Press image by Kat Gollock provided to The Student for press use.