'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria
'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria
'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria
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it‟s showing, again, what happened to her. And that she did not cry while she was raped,<br />
that she did not cry, that she did not protest, that she did not try to free herself. That is<br />
now coming back.<br />
R.R.: So, in a way, through showing Lene‟s face, you are showing her story. Are you<br />
also in a way criticizing that passivity, that stoicism <strong>of</strong> women <strong>of</strong> that generation?<br />
H.S.-B.: That‟s a good question. I‟m not criticizing. I‟m not a critic. I‟m a storyteller. I<br />
don‟t criticize the people <strong>of</strong> my film, my characters. I‟m not criticizing them. I think I<br />
try to understand. You see, in the Arabian Nights there is a wonderful thing. The rule <strong>of</strong><br />
the game is that people have to tell their stories and when they have told their stories,<br />
they‟re free. They could have committed murders and many other atrocious things, but<br />
when they tell their stories, or Scheherazade tells their stories for them, they are free.<br />
And this is somehow what happens when a film really works. By telling and by showing<br />
how something happened, you set your nightmares free. You open the door and you<br />
open the window. This is what is happening in the fairy tale; it‟s what is happening in<br />
the film. This is quite different from what happens when people tell their life stories in<br />
an interview. This is not the same thing. This kind <strong>of</strong> storytelling <strong>of</strong> the Arabian Nights<br />
or <strong>of</strong>, let‟s say, James Joyce, or Dostoyevsky, <strong>of</strong> Virginia Wolf, is setting the people free<br />
in the end because they have understood what happened to them and why they react in<br />
their way. And this is wonderful.<br />
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