Toronto Film Festival Dailies

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MY SAILOR, MY LOVE

TIFF 2022

With director: Klaus Härö and actor: James Cosmo (“Howard”)

By Emmanuel Itier

There is nothing more enchanting than Ireland, with its moody weather, its warm people, and charming movies like “My Sailor, My Love” coming to grace our screens, from time to time. Director Klau Härö, accomplished actor James Cosmo and their teammates invite you to escape, for a while, onto the other side of yourself and embrace this enchanting land where families meet and struggle, meet and fall in love again. This is one more movie not to miss at TIFF for it gives you hope and faith that things can be fine as long as we keep in mind: “I am because we are” (South African proverb).

Q: What is the idea behind this film, what were your intentions making it?

Klaus: As I was looking to develop a love story with my fellow Scandinavian writers, I wanted to figure one that deals with finding love later in your life when you have already lived life fully, when you have that experience. Also, usually the parents are the opponents but here these are the children who are opposed to their father’s love story. We went ahead and created this beautiful film with compelling characters. I really must credit my writers, Jimmy Karlsson and Kirsi Vikman for this wonderful feature.

James: I was sent the project by Klaus as well as his magnificent film: The Fencer. I was truly blown away by Klaus’ work. The Fencer is so beautifully and so delicately directed. I couldn’t wait to work with Klaus as I was so impressed by him. We talked on zoom couple of times and then we met in Ireland, on the coast where we filmed it, with its beautiful landscape.

Q: Tell me about the various Irish mountains you had to climb to make this charming film.

Klaus: I come from Finland where we have a certain way to do film. Then I came to Ireland, and it was a life lesson to adapt myself to the Irish. They are not shy about telling you when they disagree with you. They were teaching me and telling me all type of things about the “Irish way”. And the film benefits from that because it’s the reality of the life of these people and not the vision I had in my Finish mind. It was such a fresh and rich experience to share with the Irish their stories and their views, it was a true educative process and I’m thankful for it. Especially because we felt so welcomed. It wasn’t an easy shoot but we made it because of the local support we received from these amazing people, crews and various actors. Also, the weather was capricious and there were days of rain and wind when it was nearly impossible to film. I remember trying several times to get some drones shots and, each time, the drones crashed! The Irish weather was the biggest mountain to climb for sure.

James: My only challenge was having to leave this wonderful and enchanting place. We met some very special people, and it was difficult to leave them. It was such a joyful experience. It’s funny how within 24 hours that you land in that part of Ireland to realize that your pace slows, and you start taking your time to do things. It’s like going to a yoga retreat. It was truly so wonderful.

Q: What is the movie truly about for you?

James: It’s a love story on one side with that lady but it’s also an unfulfilled love story with the daughter. It’s all about the hurt and the loss that the daughter, “Catherine” feels. Especially because “Howard” is now giving his love to “Annie” and not to his daughter. It opens lots of emotional doors. It shows that people can be extraordinarily loving to someone new in their life and yet, rather cruel to people that they have taken for granted.

Klaus: Yes, I agree with James. It’s also about how hard it is to be the person your would like to be and know what’s right but when you are with the people you love to you the opposite of what you had plan to do: not argue, not be confrontative, etc. It’s hard to show love and respect for the people close to you like family. It shows you have to treat your family right or it will bounce back at you, sooner or later, later in “Howard” ‘s case.

Q: What does Tiff means to you?

Klaus: I had the privilege of going to Tiff twice already. It’s such a great film festival. Also, this time it’s the first time we will show the film to an audience. As a director you think you know your film but that is until you meet an audience. I’m looking forward to meeting the audience and having some good talks with them.

James: Toronto is about serious films and serious filmmakers and it’s a very solid audience. I can’t wait to be there and share our film with them. I’m very excited to hear what they think about our movie.

Q: Final takeaway with this film?

Klaus: Beyond being a beautiful movie to watch and because its location I also wanted this film to be an actor’s movie, an assemble movie. You never know as a director if this is going to happen or not. You never know if the magic is going to happen or not. But I hope it worked out that way and I hope the audience will see that in our movie.

James: For me it’s the takeaway is about realizing that we shouldn’t live with regrets and that we didn’t show enough love to the people who deserved it.