Kris Holden-Ried, clad in a darkish pea coat and vibrant purple scarf, stands in a patch of daylight on the sting of Griffin’s Pond within the Halifax Public Gardens, with the early morning gentle casting a glow on him as he seems throughout the water.
The Canadian-born actor isn’t taking within the sights of the plush timber and concrete waterfowl — he’s capturing a movie during which he performs Saul, a bereaved father from Westchester, N.Y., just lately arrived in Halifax to determine the stays of his son killed within the crash of Swissair Flight 111.
Set to premiere subsequent 12 months, the movie “111” is a joint Canadian-Swiss manufacturing that follows the interwoven tales of 4 folks within the aftermath of the Sept. 2, 1998 Swissair crash close to Peggy’s Cove, N.S. The MD-11 jet plunged into the Atlantic Ocean about 70 minutes right into a routine flight from New York Metropolis to Geneva after a hearth broke out within the ceiling and induced a number of system failures. All 229 folks on board have been killed.
Director Mauro Mueller mentioned the movie focuses on folks, not the crash itself, and on the hope that emerges from grief.
“(The crash) could be very a lot within the consciousness of all of the Swiss, but in addition the Canadian (folks),” Mueller mentioned in an on-set interview with The Canadian Press on the crew’s final day of filming in Nova Scotia. “We all know what occurred. It didn’t make sense to actually dramatize the crash in itself and the tragedy.”
Along with Saul, the drama follows two Swiss characters: one who loses her mom and a Swiss airline employee who travels to Halifax after the crash as a part of a care group. The movie additionally follows a number of the Nova Scotia fishermen who have been the primary ones on the water to seek for survivors.
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Nova Scotia was particularly rocked by the crash. A number of fishers raced out to Peggy’s Cove — a well-known vacationer website southwest of Halifax — as quickly as they heard the thunderous increase of the airplane hitting the ocean, solely to return tormented by the horrors of the scene.
Holden-Ried, who has additionally appeared within the tv sequence “The Umbrella Academy,” mentioned filming in Nova Scotia added to the burden of an already emotional mission. Most of the locals he spoke to when capturing in Peggy’s Cove had a private story concerning the tragedy. Listening to these tales, he mentioned, contributed to the sense of “huge duty” of getting the movie executed proper.
“It’s an necessary a part of their lives and you may inform the emotionality of the locals once they’re telling their tales,” he mentioned. “It’s sufficient distance and it’s nonetheless a vital a part of (folks’s) lives and you may inform, however they’re very supportive. They’re joyful we’re capturing it right here.”
The situation wasn’t the one factor that tied the solid and crew on to the tragedy. Björn Hering, a Swiss producer on the movie, is the son-in-law of one of many pilots on Swissair Flight 111’s final voyage.
Holden-Ried mentioned these shut household ties made being on set an “emotional prepare wreck.”
“We’re all crying each day,” he mentioned.
As a type of reprieve from heavy scenes within the movie, the script incorporates what the crew referred to as “magic moments,” or brief factors within the movie designed to supply the viewers some respiratory room. Impressed by the magical realism typically current in Latin American literature and movie, Mueller mentioned these moments are designed to “externalize the sensation of every character in a key second of the movie and cinematically visualize that second.”
Different Nova Scotia websites featured within the movie embody the Halifax airport, Hatchet Lake, and Terence Bay. The remainder of the manufacturing might be shot in Switzerland.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
