North American Premiere
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival

A talented taxidermist and her brother share a farmhouse and a dream in the intimate and poetic

REVIR – EVERYTHING YOU HOLD DEAR

A film by Peter Hammer

North American Premiere: May 1, 8:30pm – TIFF Bell Lightbox, Cinema 3

Additional screening: May 4, 11:15am – Scotiabank Theatre, Cinema 7

Their house is a menagerie of still-life animals, falcons, ducks, wolves, a bear, some arranged in life-size dioramas depicting their natural environment.

It’s day-to-day life for Susie and Sune, as depicted in Revir – Everything You Hold Dear, Peter Hammer’s remarkably intimate portrait of these alternately supportive and bickering siblings, living together, estranged from their parents.

As cinematic as real-life gets, Revir intimately follows Susie and Sune as their frail dreams become a struggle, and records the unexpected resurfacing of their past in the form of a mother determined to re-enter their lives.

The past is particularly unpleasant for Susie, a sometime sufferer of depression and other mental health issues. She assesses herself as “awkward and weird,” and says her “trust in humans was broken” in school.

Revir is a portrait of longing, and the complications of family. It also has a subtext about our complex relationship with animals. Susie and Sune have a pet cat and two dogs. Most of her customers buy her work as pieces of art, but she refuses to mount a dead pet cat, because, “It’s difficult to work with something so personal.”

“Revir’s museum diorama film set is an homage to the cultural heritage of taxidermy, says Director Peter Hammer. “It’s a cinematic device for displaying and elevating the film’s finds and invoking rituals of remembrance and conservation.”

“Composer Lars Greve was on set where he composed and performed part of the score in real-time,” enthused Hammer, “causing literal and visible vibrations in the decoration surrounding Susie and Sune — and helped transform this abstract and conceptual purpose to a very emotional space within the film.”

“I’m attracted to characters in a sort of exile, who voluntarily or not find themselves gazing at our shared society at an odd angle,” continues Hammer. “Like other very close relationships, the siblinghood of Susie and Sune is complicated and fraught with co-dependency, expectations, blame, and guilt. Luckily there’s also lots of laughter. But for Revir, their exile creates a deeply engaging discussion between togetherness and loneliness.”

The film is produced by Vibeke Vogel, Copenhagen’s Bullitt Film, and supported by New Danish Screen/Danish Institute of Film, project commissioner Christina Ramsø Thomsen and DR TV, commissioning editor Lasse Bjørch.

Peter Hammer is a Danish filmmaker with an artistic research practice and a background in journalism. He holds an MA of artistic research in cinema from Netherlands Film Academy centreing on ‘documentary imagination’ as a critical practice for reconfiguring narrative fields with the help of encounters and coincidences. He began his career in 2005 as an investigative journalist and has since become an award-winning director and creative producer of documentaries and experimental factual programming with the Danish Broadcasting Corp. Revir is his cinematic film debut.

Vibeke Vogel established Bullitt Film in Copenhagen in 2007 with an ambition to create inspiring facilities for ambitious and creative documentary films. She has worked with moving images as a producer and curator for more than 20 years and has introduced Danish talents such as Max Kestner (Max by Chance, 1st Appearance IDFA) and Karen Stokkendal Poulsen (The Agreement, F:ACT/CPH:DOX and Prix Europa Special Commendation) to the international scene, working alongside filmmakers such as Charles Atlas (Turning), Anne Wivel (Land of Human Beings) and Marcus Lindeen (The Raft). Vogel’s starting point in the business was in video art, where she curated several shows focusing especially on American artists in Denmark and the Nordic countries. She holds a Master’s from Film and Media Studies, and a Bachelor In Arts/culture leadership.