Venice Film Festival: "I am Greta" Thunberg, a very intimate portrait

Swedish director Nathan Grossmann presented “I am Greta” at the 2020 Venice Film Festival as a world premiere.

© Siegfried Forster / RFI

Text by: Siegfried Forster Follow

7 min

He spent 34 hours by train from Sweden to the Venice Film Festival to present “I am Greta”, a very intimate portrait of young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.

Interview with Swedish director Nathan Grossmann, 29, after the world premiere at the festival.

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At the film's press conference, the young Swedish activist agreed to make a cameo appearance, via Zoom, to react to the film.

According to her,

does indeed reflect her personality as she is (" 

 ", " 

shy nerdy

 ").

This compliment highlights the strengths of Nathan Grossmann's film and its limitations.

allows a very rich and original look at her.

At the same time, it is content to give answers to questions already very often raised.  

RFI

Nathan Grossmann

No, I've always been interested in doing my best in this area.

Making a portrait of Greta could help to have a more global and more human view of her character.

She gave so many 5 to 10 minute interviews, all of her speeches ... But it was always a little sluggish.

With this film, I wanted to give more nuance and as many aspects as possible to his life.  

You follow Greta everywhere

I followed her for a year, not all the time, but often, according to certain priorities.

At first, the school strike started very modestly, in front of the Swedish parliament.

I filmed it from the first days.

A friend of mine had given me the information that she was going to do this action, because he knew Greta's family.

The more I filmed, the closer I became to Greta.   

Did Greta intervene to avoid the broadcast of certain scenes shot

No, she hasn't seen the tapes.

We made the simplest deal possible for a documentary.

We figured that when the movie is practically done, she can watch it to avoid anything wrong.

When she watched the film, her reaction was positive.

She recognized herself in the pictures.

The only thing was that she felt like the film was very compressed, that we had cut too much.

There was one scene in particular where she felt like you couldn't understand the conflict shown on screen.

So we added images.   

“Greta”, the documentary by director Nathan Grossman on young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, has been selected for the Venice Film Festival 2020. © La Biennale di Venizia

The first images of the documentary show Greta on the boat bound for New York for the global climate summit.

Were you part of this risky crossing of the Atlantic

Yes, I was also on the boat.

I don't know if it was risky.

In any case, it was very strange to navigate there, because I am not a sailor.

I had practiced a little sailing in Sweden.

But, it was a completely new experience for me to be on this zero carbon sailboat.

It was special to shoot for two weeks in these conditions.   

Greta is one of the most publicized figures in the world.

How does your documentary add something new

What I find interesting is having spent a lot of time with her.

The difference between a film and reports for news channels is there.

We can dig deeper: we do not mention things, we show them, for example when she meets French President Macron at the Élysée Palace.

We understand better what a crazy year Greta Thunberg lived.   

What was the biggest surprise for you

At first Greta was a bit stoic, it was her way of giving all these talk.

She didn't laugh much.

Afterwards, seeing scenes where she bursts out laughing or is more funny, because she can be really funny and charming, it was a surprise for me.   

Greta's incredible power of influence is also the expression of a generation.

Do you feel that you are part of this generation, of this struggle

I'm 29, so I don't really feel like this generation.

After that, it's a question of definition.

But I understand very well these young people and the frustration they carry within them.

They will be the most affected by climate change.   

In one scene, Greta gets angry when she doesn't just find out that governments often break promises.

In addition, on these United Nations climate summits, everyone eats meat, there is just a vegetarian meal on the menu.

On the ecological side, what did you discover when you arrived here at the Venice Film Festival

This is a very important question.

That says it all when she goes to the top and finds herself in this situation.

This consciousness, she transmitted it to me.

For example, in Stockholm, I took the train to come here to Venice.

A 34 hour journey.

These are things that we can change ourselves.

Beyond that, we need to change the system.

Here in Venice it's a very glamorous festival, with actors dressed very chic, but I hope, by presenting this film here in these cinematic circles, that it will help spread the message to other parts of the world. .   

Did you yourself change while making this film

This subject interested me already long before, but I did not know it today.

Greta taught me a lot, especially to read the original news, to go to the sources of the information, for example to study the Paris Agreement on the climate.

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