In Camilla Magid’s ‘Fighting Demons With Dragons,’ Teenagers Battle Adulthood Anxieties With Educational Roleplay
variety.comSavina Petkova “Mistrivsel” is a Danish word that roughly translates as depression, and its use has proliferated in recent year, especially when talking about young people.
Instead of asking why that is, Copenhagen-born director Camilla Magid decided to document how one institution is coming up with alternative remedies for that dark state of mind. “Fighting Demons With Dragons” follows three students at Østerskov Boarding School in Northern Denmark, one of the few places using live action role play (LARP) as an educational method. “Looking back, almost everything I’ve ever made has always been about the outsider figure,” says Magid, speaking with Variety ahead of the film’s world premiere in Thessaloniki Documentary Festival’s Newcomers Competition.
She sees the longing to belong as a universal theme underpinning her previous works, even more politically so in “Land of the Free,” a documentary about former prisoners after their release, which won the Nordic competition at CPH:DOX in 2017.
Heidi Elise Christensen of Final Cut for Real serves as producer for these two titles, in addition to her involvement in last year’s Thessaloniki winner, “A House Made of Splinters.” Kerstin Übelacker of We Have a Plan and Lisa Nyed of Film i Skåne co-produce Magid’s latest from the Swedish side.
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