At ease
About the film:
Liv (13) and her father Lars (40) are both deeply connected to the magic oaktree beautifying the piece of land they inherited from his mom.
The family, mom, dad, four children and mom's mom relies fully on the financial stability from forestkeeping. In the otherwise high-tech surroundings, Lars works the forest the old way, cutting only ripe trees, transporting the cut timber out, helped by his two horses.
Liv loves her dad, their horses, the forest and is fascinated by the mystery of myths. She belives grandma's soul lives in the oak, that it's sacred, spreading a very special radiance on their land. According to the myths, whoever remove them, will live in eternal darkness.
When Lars loses his job due to forestmachines that offers double efficienc to forestowners, the family-idyll trembles. Lars's offered a job at the cellulose factory, seemingly a living nightmareplace compared to the idyllic forest. He's forced to take life changing decisions. Liv's mom sees the factory as an ideal solution. Grandma takes even more sedatives and frees herself from all responsibility. Lars knows that if he goes to work in the factory, his organic life-rhythm is broken and therefore considers selling the land, taking down the oak.
Liv is shocked and has to stop him, preventing him from ending up living in eternal darkness, forever breaking the line of heritage by selling the land, and initiates a heroic rescue operation
Oak trees.
Throughout the major cultures of Europe people have held the oak tree in high esteem. To Greeks, Romans, Celts, Slavs and Teutonic tribes the oak was foremost amongst venerated trees. In each case associated with the supreme god in their pantheon, oak being sacred to Zeus, Jupiter, Dagda, Perun and Thor, respectively. Each of these gods also had dominion over rain, thunder and lightning. It is no coincidence that oak trees are more prone to lightning strikes than many other trees. This is because of the tree’s high water content and the fact that they are frequently the tallest living things in the landscape.
Director Mona J. Hoel:
"At ease" world premiered in Sweden 1995. It is my debut feature, strongly influenced by my grandmother's sustainable forestkeeping and my documentary "The Beauty or The Beast" 1992 that won Oberhausen Shortfilmfestival, Leipzig documentary filmfestival, the "Terje Vigen" price at The Norwegian Shortfilmfestival and The Amanda debut price, Haugesund Filmfestival, 1992.
I studied phoography at ICP, International Center of Photography, New York and 1982-1985. filmdirecting at Dramatic Institute, Stockholm 1986-89. My graduation film "The House" won "best film" at Munich International Studentfilmaward 1989,head of jury Alan Parker.