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I did a rope love scene in a feature film (2019)

by andyburu#the human bondage

…or I ghost rigged it. Ghost rigging is the deal that I make a beautiful tie and make it look like someone else did it. In this example a young girl suspending an older man.

Being busy the past years with my theatre studies, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around bondage and performance. One ingredient is the story and character development, and how the act of tying rope can make a different, beyond just being beautiful. That’s why incorporating ropes into a feature film has been so special to me.

In the clip below has Stefan has walked away from his ten year wedding anniversary, after an awkward dinner conversation about old lovers, commitment, abortion, loyalty and freedom. He needs a break from this day and the complexity of life. Faith leads him to Saga. As many times before. She is a university student of his. They share a secret.

The film is called BUNDEN is recorded by Lycke Film and the director Kristina Nilsson during 2017. It is an adaptation of a theatre play by Teater Tofta from 2016.

Post for the film.

My collaboration with Lycke Film and Teater Tofta started already in 2015 when the scriptwriter participated in a workshop. He was inspired by my bondage as an expression of daring to be different. Later he contacted me asked if I would like to help me with creating the play. Of course, I did because spreading rope bondage as a practice for EVERYONE is part of my passion.

Teater Tofta is a theatre group that every summer makes a play at Tofta Herrgård, a countryside mansion outside Gothenburg in Sweden. Before BUNDEN they had focused on adapting famous Scandinavian dramas, like Strindberg, Ibsen and Noren, to a modern intimate stage. BUNDEN literally translates to BOUND, and the bound of marriage and commitment is a strong theme in the play.

From the theatre play promotion.

We started in 2016 with a weekend-long workshop for the entire theatre ensemble to introduce them to the world of rope bondage. This was followed by several private lessons for the actors in the rope scene to beat the basics into their muscle memory. In the theatre play the rope bondage scene was a semi-suspension. After the play became a success the founders of Teater Tofta decided to make their first feature film, so they founded Lycke Film.

The recording was done in the summer of 2017, and then we decided to make the rope scene into a full suspension. In the scene, it is a mix of my tying and the actress, and I’m very happy with how the result turned out. Now that I have been studying drama as part of my theatre directing studies, it has become very clear to me that rope bondage needs a story. That makes me emotionally invested in meeting between two people. So making it a rope love scene part of a theatre play and featured film was really something special for me.

Thank you to Teatre Tofta and Lycke Film.