Female creators are ready to tackle sexual violence and abuse in their shows. But they don’t always want to show it.
This was one of the key takeaways from Monday’s Berlinale Series Market panel Owning the Narrative – Deconstructing Stereotypes in TV Series, moderated by Variety.
“There are many things that can trigger and re-traumatize people, so we tried our best not to. With director Elsa van Damke and her co-writer Jana Forkel we decided not to show the actual rape,” said “Angemessen Angry” producer Solmaz Azizi.
Azizi produced the Germany series with Marie Bloching, which sees a young woman developing superpowers after an assault.
“I’ve seen many images of naked body parts that I cannot get out of my head. It can be pleasant – I don’t mind seeing Idris Elba walking out of a shower – but it might be something I’m not prepared to see. Still, one male moderator we’ve had [while promoting the show] implied that maybe the rape didn’t really happen because we never showed it. It never even occurred to us to think that way.”
Spain’s “Querer,” about a woman accusing her husband of 30 years of repeated rape, also opted for a “delicate” approach.
“You can’t see any violence. You feel it, but the viewer doesn’t really know what truly happened,” said Fabrizia Palazzo, distribution manager at Movistar+, during the panel.
While it shouldn’t feel exploitative, sometimes violent scenes are necessary to understand the character’s situation, argued Doris Tääker, director of Estonian-Ukrainian “My Dear Mother,” about a drug addict and prostitute accused of murdering her mother.
“I wanted to show how sexual violence makes one lose their self-esteem and self-worth,” she said. Tääker decided to stick to the perspective of the victim while shooting the scenes.
“We had many talks with the producers about how we prevent the audience from stopping watching the show afterwards. One of the methods comes from Danish screenwriting: you enter the scene late and exit as fast as possible. The other is music. Its presence tells you it’s not real life.”
Unable to collaborate with intimacy coordinators – “At that point, we didn’t have any in Estonia” – she worked closely with her lead actress, production manager and stunt coordinator. “He’d always say: ‘It’s a choreography, it’s a game.’ He created a very safe space.”
Despite focusing more on mental abuse than physical violence, Marika Makaroff – Finnish Emmy-nominated creator behind “L/Over” – also worked with intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien. “After the scenes, we would talk to cast members and the team, just to get them out of our system.”
It matters who tells stories of abuse, with female creators often using their own experiences. Or the experiences of other women they know.
“I’m sure there are amazing male directors who would do a great job on a project like this, but I believe it does make a big, big difference. In our creative development team, the only man was our amazing commissioning editor at RTL, Thomas Disch. It’s a spoiler, but we asked him if we could cut off a penis [in a scene], and he said yes. Imagine how many men are going to be offended by that,” said Azizi.
“During development, we spoke a lot about our own experiences as well, and so many things just came to mind. There’s no woman that has not experienced sexual violence in some way. It happens all the time. Being a woman is really tough.”
Tääker observed: “For ‘My Dear Mother,’ it was important for the director to be a woman because it talks about the mother-daughter relationship. I created a strong bond with the main actress, and on difficult shooting days, her husband would say: ‘Fortunately, Doris is also a girl.’”
Stories featuring sexual violence should come with trigger warnings.
“The audience needs to know what’s waiting for them. With ‘Baby Reindeer,’ I was taken aback by how much they showed us,” said Tääker, with Azizi agreeing: “I thought I was watching a show about a stalker and then it turned into something I wasn’t prepared for. I don’t think it’s a spoiler if you have a content note. It just helps to know what you’re committing to watch.”
Apart from adding information about places and hotlines providing help, as was done in “L/Over,” providing a guide to the legal process for sexual violence survivors is also on the creators’ minds.
“These judicial procedures last years. Victims start the whole process as one person and end it as another. The format of a TV series gives you time to show this,” said Palazzo.
Showing victims in a complex, unusual way is another goal.
“Once something like that happens, you are ashamed. But Miren [played by Nagore Aranburu] finds her freedom, and she takes back her life,” noted Palazzo. Just like Amelie does in “Angemessen Angry.”
“Elsa van Damke speaks very openly about the fact that she’s a survivor of sexual violence and a lot of her own experience went into crafting the character and the story. I think many broadcasters were afraid of this combination of sexual violence and humor, but that’s what makes it so special. There are so many horrible things happening in the world. If you have a moment in between when you can laugh, it helps you get through.”
