For their documentary Perfect Road, Danish directors and cousins Adam and Christian Bonke followed nomadic cyclist Maximilian Schnell on an extreme journey across some of Europe’s highest mountain passes. The film documents his journey, offers a character study and serves up a meditation on modern life and our priorities and life choices.
Elk Film and Dogwoof produced Perfect Road, with Andreas Dalsgaard, Anna Godas, Oli Harbottle, Miriam Nørgaard serving as producers. Jonatan Mose served as cinematographer, with editing handled by Martin Anthon.
Perfect Road, which world premiered at Zurich, is now screening at the 30th anniversary edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) in Estonia. It shows how the road brings freedom and adventure, but also grueling physical and mental challenges. And that is not only true for Schnell but also the directors and their cinematographer.
“We ended up living in a campervan for three months,” recalls Adam Bonke. “It was three grown-up men in a not so big campervan with a lot of equipment. And then we had a small a smaller car, like a satellite, that we could send out on the tiny roads where the campervan couldn’t go.”
Adds Christian Bonke: “It was such a headache because you had to put water into the car, you had to empty the toilet. So when we were done shooting for the day, we had to take care of all that.”
‘Perfect Road’
Courtesy of Elk Film
The filmmakers considered various strategies for capturing footage. Initially, they wanted to use several different camera people over the course of the three-month adventure. “But then our DP was kicked out by his girlfriend,” Christian Bonke tells THR. “So he said, ‘I’m going to do all three months. This is perfect for me.’ And Adam and I took turns.”
It may not have been a holiday or super-comfortable, but Adam Bonke tells THR: “It was comfortable enough.” And it allowed the filmmakers to get a better feel for Schnell’s life choices. “He said, ‘I’m trading comfort for freedom,’” the co-director explains. “I think that’s that’s such a nice thing to say and really frames the film perfectly.”
The Danish filmmaker duo actually still fondly looks back at the experience shooting Perfect Road. “We often talk about how we miss those days. It was so beautiful,” says Christian Bonke. “You felt embraced by nature. And after meeting Max, we were completely hit by how conventional and boring [traditional life can be] and how many constraints our lives had at home. So we could get a little glimpse of living his way.”