Heksehammeren
(The Witch Hammer)
Producer: Una Mathiesen Gjerde
Production Company: Amfititre Produksjon AS
Director: Marin Håskjold
Script: Marin Håskjold
In the far north, a group of women are facing charges for witchery. If sentenced, they will be executed. In the merciless hunt for a confession the prosecuting authorities go beyond mere questioning — applying various tests and torture methods to get the confessions they need to progress with the trials. The accused know they won’t escape this alive, but can they somehow preserve their reputation?
The witch trials of early modern Europe and North America are some of the most extensive examples of systematic persecution in Western history. At the egde of Scandinavia, where the sun disappears for months and ice is covering the lands most of the year, this became especially apparent. Several fishermen’s villages were almost devoited of women. How could this happen? What lead society to such a state of conflict? What motivated this hunt?
In her upcoming short-film Witches Marin Håskjold explores not only the women labelled as witches but also their prosecutors. In Håskold’s interpretation, guided by her intuitive and direct cinematic language, the witch trials becomes more than just a historical chapter. Through the witches and their prosecutors, we suddenly find ourselves in a reality mirroring our own time, and the endless societal need for a scapegoat. To this day we are still hunting witches.
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