After a world premiere on Sunday August 9, 2026 in the 79th Locarno Film Festival’s ‘Concorso Internazionale’ section, Hailey Passmore sat down with writer-director Maria Bäck to discuss her intriguing and passionate new film, Brave New Love.
*Please note that filler words (i.e. um, yeah, etc.) have been removed for a more simple read through the interview with Maria.
Hailey Passmore: Hi, how are you?
Maria Bäck: I’m good. It’s just *great hand gestures* But I’m good.
Hailey: Is it interview day today, then?
Maria: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the premiere was yesterday, and so I didn’t really sleep, but I’m good. I’m just a bit overwhelmed.
Hailey: If it’s okay with you, the landscape [of your film] and everything’s beautiful, but I really wanted to ask you about your character. If that’s okay. [To] focus on the character.
[Your film] is not only about finding love, but would you also say it’s about Kate finding herself, late in life? Um, like your film..
Maria: Yeah, definitely. To me, she’s going through an existential crisis and, you know, with all kinds of existential dilemmas, I suppose maybe every time you try to connect with somebody else, you also try to connect with that part in yourself that is trying to connect with the other person. Of course, this is something that is ongoing all the time. Just like in a mother, daughter relationship. They try to find each other, but they at the same time try to separate. You know, it’s always this mix of, “who are you? who am I? Who are we together?” It’s a lot of things going on there for sure.
Hailey: There aren’t that many films made where it is a middle-aged, female protagonist, where she’s trying to find herself, where she’s not, like, not the obedient one, but the obedient one. What made you want to make her not perfect, crazy and whimsical?
Maria: One thing that I really knew for sure was that I would never want to make a film that I’ve already seen. Like, why would you bother doing that? So I would always try for making a film that I’m yearning for myself. Kate came to me as a character in a way that I just knew that I have to tell her story. I have to protect her as if she was my best friend. You know?
It’s funny [that] we can tolerate a lot when we understand the other person’s inner world. You can have empathy with almost anyone outside. But it’s these kind of issues that she’s going through [are] something that is very hard to share. So then, of course, it’s easier for us to judge. Because if you don’t share what it’s like, then it’s very easy on the other side to have a black and white idea of what’s going on over here or what she’s doing is wrong or what he’s doing is, you know? Then that kind of level, if you dig deeper and try to look at the human side of it, and try to protect it. Because we all fuck up all the time in different [ways]. I mean, she’s doing a lot of whimsical, clumsy choices, and things are also happening to her, but this is the way life is. Things happen, and you have to do your best and navigate, and you make a choice somehow or you don’t, and then life makes a choice for you. But everything is somehow…you have no choice in a way, because life is complex.
I also think it’s interesting what we know is going on around us in friends and other people’s relationship. We know a lot of different things are going on. But we’re not so used to seeing it in a film for some reason. Why is that that we haven’t seen many characters like Kate, because I know many people like her. I felt that I was lacking this. It’s a bit weird, in a way. Why didn’t I see her before? Of course there are a lot of films dealing with this. It’s not that I’m saying that this is the first film. But for sure, it’s not that common. Like, I haven’t I haven’t seen that kind of character before. So, I was really curious on working with that. Because I’ve been working with this film for six years, and I know I always work for a long time, and it’s like the only thing I’ve been doing six years. So then it needs to be very challenging to me as well because otherwise I bore myself. So it had to be impossible in a way.
I really wanted her to be free and… I wanted her to do the opposite of people would expect. Because almost everybody, probably will expect that she will make a choice, because the triangle drama is like that. You are torn and mute. Oh, what side to choose? It is always like that. And if you don’t choose a side, or maybe you choose the wrong, then you get punished. You know, you have a script for like how to deal with these things. And then I just felt that it would be fun and also scary. Of course, it wasn’t an easy thing to write. But as I said, because I worked for so long, it has to be scary because otherwise it’s boring.
Hailey: Yeah. It’s refreshing too to see what you don’t expect because normally all these films have such a strategic way and you know where it’s going to go. Even if you don’t know how it gets there. So it’s nice being like is it gonna end then? It’s nice having a surprising film.
So while you took six years, it’s a person we all recognize, because there’s lots of people like Kate out there. Did you do any research to help make the character or do you think it just came through the scriptwriting process from the character?
Maria: I didn’t do any research on her as a character because I know her so well in a way. But I did a lot of research in terms of finding inspiration and a clear way to navigate in the expectations that are surrounding us in terms of automatic reactions and what do we actually expect for a person like Kate?
For example, I gathered a group of women, like almost the group in the church, but in real life. I got a group of women, they were between 18 and 75, and we had some meetings where I played Kate. It was just a game, but I played Kate. I told the Kate story to them. Just in the church, to try out their reactions, because they were just themselves. So they could ask Kate questions, and they could say, “how did you do that?” We talked, and that was really fun. I tried to do it [with] different women. We had two different groups, and to tell her story with the different order. When do I tell this thing and when do I tell this thing? And try to mix, because when I was writing the script, I tried to have a narrative that is, of course, her journey, her dilemma. But there’s also a narrative going on…It’s been my intention, [to] at least [have] a narrative that is the audience’s expectations.
So I would say, as an audience, I have a guess that you would probably think in the beginning that, “it’s not good, that she’s not honest.” So everybody would probably have an assumption that honesty is good. You know? And then, where to put this point where we understand that her husband has actually said that he doesn’t want to know? Because then, of course, the honesty [is gone]. It’s been very much like a play for me, and a jigsaw: where to put the different parts and pieces of information. How long do we stay in this kind of suggestion to Kate? So you have to pick a new solution for her. And so it’s been very much game that I used other people to kind of play around [with] what’s happening? When do they ask this? What is their reaction when I tell them this?
For example, when do we tell them that they don’t have sex, like regular sex, normal sex, or conventional sex? Because that is something that also changed. If you say that she’s seeing this other man. Most people say, if you say it like that, [that] they probably see each other, and they f*ck every time they see each other. That’s what people think. So when they understand that there’s no penetration, which is so important to some people. Why is the penetration so important? Then there are some other that are more reacti[ve]. But no, she actually loves him, and that’s, for some people, that is much worse, worse than if it’s sex…
It’s fun to play with what is infidelity and what are our expectations? When do you cross the border and who’s deciding? The border is, of course, different places for everybody. But we still have a society where we have an idea that we have agreed on at some point. That is the right way, you’re in the right place to put the body.
I hope that I never sound like I have any good solutions or answers. I have no clue how to live your life. But I thinkit’s fun to question it. It’s fun to bring it up, and it’s fun if somebody sees the film and just has one new thought. That would be fun.
Hailey: Yeah, to get [at least] one reaction.
Maria: Exactly. Because it’s very hard for us as humans to change habits in general. That is very hard. When you look at the theme, regarding love and rules of love, it becomes very obvious how hard it is. There’s so many other things as well that we do that are also hard changing the habits, but love is so obvious to us.
Everybody is struggling with love. at some point, and your expectations. There’s a whole industry, and also there’s like nothing about how the capitalism is also affecting our expectations. But what kind of force is that? They try to sell love as “love without risks.” What is that? It’s an endless world of not knowing what is my own desire and what am I expected to react [in what way]. It’s like endless, no answers, just questions. But I think it’s inspiring.
Hailey: Yeah, it is, and as I said earlier, it’s a fresh take and it’s nice to see something new that everyone knows someone is experiencing.
Maria: Yeah, exactly. Everybody knows it.
Hailey: Yeah. There’s just not represented. No, I feel like film’s such a good medium for things to be represented. So yeah, thank you for putting that out.
Maria: Thank you.
Hailey: Speaking of, because it’s not normalized or conventional, like you said, did you have any backlash? What kind of struggles did you go through with being able to keep Kate the way you wanted to keep her and not have other people say no?
Maria: Yeah, that was a big challenge. I had to, of course, confront my own shame, my own vulnerability and my own willingness to stand up for it without judging and without putting her through something, [where] she is punished. I think if she was getting a punishment in the film, the film would be a totally different film. So, it’s been challenging to keep protecting her and keep insisting on that. But I have just had this thing in mind that I have to be brave enough to dare to investigate this. Instead of going to the safe place. That is like a value in itself too. Because I know it happens. I know these things happened all the time. They’re so common., in different scales. That is a good reason why we should share this loneliness in a way because you can very easily feel fundamentally wrong as a person. I mean, it doesn’t have to be something in love. I have felt fundamentally wrong as a person, in my own life, in different kind of ways. That is a specific loneliness. That has to do with how we see each other and how we see the world. So, I think that has been the key for me: Insisting on sharing that loneliness. That feels very important. Then, if people want to judge, people can do whatever they want. I feel it was important for me to try to show something I know is there. Like, I don’t want to be a part of hiding it, I’d rather talk about it.
Hailey: We don’t need perfect women on the screen. We need them imperfect.
Maria: Yeah, exactly. You can stand and you can choose paths. I don’t want to do more reproducing on that. We have that. I think it’s a lot about reproducing ideas or ideals, or how we mirror each other and try to see what could happen. No change can happen if you don’t imagine. If you don’t imagine anything else, nothing’s gonna change ever. You need the imagination to be able to. Some parts of it may be naive and stuff, but I don’t care. I really wanted to insist on bringing it out in the light somehow, and try to insist that that is important. It feels like the right thing to do.
Hailey: Once you got that through, what was the casting process like? Like how did you know that you found the right one to play Kate?
Maria: I mean, when I met Catherine, I actually knew from the start when I met her that this [she] is gonna be the perfect Kate. That was really, and I cannot imagine anybody else like Kate. But that was pretty late in the process, like due to long, many different reasons. But it was very clear to me, actually.
And I think both Andreas [(Anders Danielsen Lie)] and Eliza [(Angeliki Papoulia)] were characters that I knew. I had very much Anderson and Angeliki in my mind. That wasn’t the same kind of searching for. Simon [(Sears), as Orla], that was love at first sight kind of thing. I think it’s about intuition and chemistr. If you’re in doubt, then it’s not the right [fit]. It is just this feeling that you have to really click in that way where it’s like, “okay, it has to be like this.” And then, of course, takes time.
It’s [a] complicated process, but it’s very fun. This film is such a collaboration both in front and behind the camera. The casting for the team is just as important. Because you create environment and the trust and room and everybody in this production, like all the producers, the filmmakers the artists and all the actors. Everybody has been so invested in the core of the film. Everybody’s been very generous and very brave and let go of their ego. [There] was never any conflict around what we wanted to do because everybody was tapping into the same core. It was a very touching experience, actually. Everybody wanted to stand out for this vision together.
Hailey: So one last question. For your title, how did you want it to reflect on the love and how Kate is undeniably herself? Because it’s Brave New Love. So how did you hope this will be taken in when watching the film.
Maria: Yeah, that’s a very hard question. I think it is this very loose reference to Brave New World by Aldous Huxley novel from almost 100 years ago. I’d read it as a teenager. I think that novel made a huge impression on me when I read it many years ago. It is about society controlling desire. Maybe because I was having this project in mind, some associations in my unconscious made this title pop up. Actually, when I got the title, Brand New Love, which was title that came, without being intellectual about it, it was an association from an unconscious thing. It was kind of saying you have this dystopian thing in the novel, but what if we go the opposite way where we have a protagonist that is actually just going with her desire instead. So, it came pretty much from that. It became a key. The title was in the first draft. It became a key for the whole team. How to work. We talked about every day. We have to be brave. Everybody tapped into that. It was a fun title to be working with because of that. It gave us a direction together. The value was in that. [For example], when we had to choose between two things, we should always do the most scary thing. Not go for safety, but go for uncertainty.
Hailey: Amazing. Thank you for your time.
Maria: Well, thank you so nice to meet you.
Hailey: It was nice to meet you, too. Good luck.
Maria: Thank you. Thank you.
