Trust the Process

“Sometimes it’s simply good to be stuck in one place together,” says Joakim Granberg with a laugh. The screenwriter travelled from Stockholm to the small village of Pommersby in the far north of Schleswig-Holstein to work on his new film idea alongside nine other writers. The setting: a small country estate just a five-minute walk from the Baltic Sea. Without a car, you can’t even get to the nearest kiosk. But that was exactly the point. “We were all picked up by bus in Hamburg – and when we arrived here in nature, my shoulders instantly dropped. I love this place,” says Hamburg-based writer Toby Chlosta. Instant relaxation, no distractions. The perfect conditions for what was to come.

One of the key mantras of the week: Trust the Process. Let go, try new things, allow yourself to be inspired. “We’re trying to break routines in a playful way and give participants new tools for screenwriting. Logical thinking doesn’t always get you where you need to go,” says Simão Cayatte. Together with Gabrielle Brady, he formed the tutoring team for the five days in Pommersby. Both are experienced writers and directors who know what matters. They also work as tutors for Le Groupe Ouest, one of Europe’s most innovative initiatives for script development, based in France. But how do you actually manage to let go of familiar habits and invite fresh ideas?

According to Cayatte, one of the most effective tools is “orality” – not writing things down, but talking about them, ideally within tight time limits. “It can be far more productive to tell your story to someone else. Your mind takes shortcuts and detours when you speak, especially when there are short pauses or limited time,” he explains. What emerges in the end often brings you much closer to the core of the story or the characters.

For writer Toby Chlosta, who arrived with his project idea Hold Your Horses about a complicated mother-son relationship, the iceberg exercise was a real game changer. The aim is to get closer and closer to one of your characters in five stages. What would the character tell the local baker? The neighbor? A lover? A therapist? The iceberg gradually melts, revealing the core. Finnish writer Eva-Maria Koskinen had a breakthrough moment during the photo exercise: “All participants had to take photos outside with a Polaroid camera. Afterwards, we laid them all out on a table and everyone got a photo they hadn’t taken themselves. Around that picture we then improvised an important memory of our main character. It was fascinating to see what emerged,” says the writer, whose project “Deeper” is a thriller series about the sabotage of the North Stream pipeline.

Most days at the Nordic NEST Space are a mix of group sessions and exercises in small pairs. There are regular energisers, breathing techniques – and, of course, plenty of good snacks and meals. So how does it feel after a long, intense day of work? “For me, it’s a good, pleasant kind of tiredness,” says Eva-Maria Koskinen. “By the end of the day, my brain feels a bit mushy. The days are demanding and intense – we get a lot of input. But that’s how we manage to get the most out of a short time,” adds Joakim Granberg. As the day winds down, it’s time for a sauna, a walk to the water, or private conversations in the communal spaces.

Above all, the shared process is one of the Space’s greatest strengths. “A lot here really comes from working together. You’re not just dealing with your own story, but with everyone else’s too,” says Toby Chlosta. “There’s no sense of competition. Everyone wants a strong result – and that’s the perfect basis for good collaboration,” adds Hamburg-based writer Sarah M. Kempen. She continues: “I find it incredibly relaxing that commercial considerations don’t matter at this early stage. Nothing gets cut here. It’s all about our stories – and how we can make them better.”

After the NEST Space comes the Göteborg Film Festival: At the end of January, the ten writers will present their developed ideas at a matchmaking event in Göteborg to a selected group of 20 producers from Germany and the Nordic countries. Those who succeed in bringing together a Nordic and a German production company will receive €20,000 in development funding. The three strongest projects will receive a further €60,000. And who knows – perhaps the first Nordic NEST projects will see the light of day within the next two years.

The foundation has already been laid: “At the Space, we created an environment where a seed can grow into a film,” says tutor Gabrielle Brady. We’re already looking forward to harvest time.