We caught up with Orlando von Einsiedel, director of The Cycle of Love, to discuss how he brought such an intimate story to the big screen, and why stories about love feel more important than ever in our current times.
The Cycle of Love follows the extraordinary story of PK and Lotta. In 1977, PK, a young street artist from Delhi, picked up a handful of paintbrushes and a second-hand bicycle and set off on a 6000-mile journey to find Lotta, the woman who had captured his heart.
Oscar-nominated director Orlando von Einsiedel retraces PK’s journey from India to Sweden in this extraordinarily uplifting film, that is not just about what can happen when you follow your heart, but is also a paean to the joy of chance encounters and the kindness of strangers.
The Cycle of Love is out now at Bertha DocHouse. To coincide with the release, we caught up with Orlando to hear more about the making of the film.
How did you come across PK and Lotta’s story?
I was giving a speech at an event in Sweden and was approached by two young people who handed me a book about PK’s life called “The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled From India to Sweden for Love.” It turns out these were PK’s children and they asked if I’d be interested in reading about his life.
The story of PK’s cycle journey is an epic adventure filled with magic, but it also really moved me. His story covers such a rich tapestry of universal themes from love and destiny to the kindness of strangers and the idea of enduring hope.
I was lucky enough to meet PK not long afterwards and this had me hooked. He is a magnetically entertaining and charismatic man, with profound wisdom, a playful sense of humour and a beautiful and open heart.
PK is such a unique soul – what did you have in mind when trying to find the right person to play him?
It was a tall order to find an actor who could play a younger PK however we thankfully found that in the brilliant Chirag Benedict Lobo who came to us after a long search via casting director Kirsty Kinnear. We needed someone who resembled a younger PK, someone who was a talented actor and someone who could improvise – there was no script for this film.
However, the two really crucial metrics were for someone who had the natural charisma that PK exudes, and someone who was highly emotionally intelligent. This last trait was vital as a lot of what Chirag does in the film is listen to real people as they share their own experiences, in their own words. To get people to talk naturally about their lives, their experiences of love and their hopes and dreams, required someone who was very empathetic and who could connect with people from all parts of the world at a fundamental human level. PK does this so effortlessly (and this is one of the reasons he was able to cross the world by bicycle), and I believe Chirag has all the same attributes.
So much of PK’s journey is shaped by the kindness of strangers. How was the experience of recreating this journey with a film crew?
I was really excited to tell the story as a film after meeting PK and Lotta – but there were lots of challenges. In particular, limited archive footage from an event that happened more than 50 years ago. Sadly PK didn’t have a documentary crew trailing his journey in the 1970s! As a filmmaker and storyteller I found this terrifying, but I also loved how it pushed me and forced me to think in fresh ways.
My past work helped me though. Many years ago I made a road trip documentary about my family’s experience of trying to process the death of my brother, who tragically took his own life. It was called Evelyn. A key part of the film involved meeting strangers on an epic walk across the UK, and in these interactions extraordinary conversations unfolded.
I wondered if this same concept could inform a large part of this film. If we followed parts of PK’s original cycle journey in order to meet real-life everyday people, and document conversations about these people’s experiences of love, hopes and dreams, I believed it could allow us to capture the core essence of PK’s story – about how strangers during his cycle ride helped him learn to love himself after decades of experiencing the torment of caste discrimination.
And so, we set off on a seven week shoot along with PK and Lotta, actors Chirag Benedict Lobo and Mina Dale, and a brilliant filmmaking team, in order to meet people from India, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Ukraine, Cuba and Australia to name a few.
How closely were PK and Lotta involved in crafting the narrative?
PK and Lotta joined us on the road for almost the entire time during location shooting to make the most accurate portrayal of past events possible. I believe this really allowed us to authentically portray PK’s experience.
He guided our process on everything from the topics of the conversations he had, through to magic tricks he did to entertain children. Sometimes, the conversations we filmed felt so familiar to PK, he broke down in tears watching what took place on camera.
The Cycle of Love is quite a tonal shift from some of your previous films. Why did you want to tell this story now?
There are of course so many important and urgent stories in the world that deserve to be highlighted on screen, however as a film team we’ve been increasingly wanting to make a film that is unashamedly optimistic and brings feelings of joy and human connection – feelings which are often under celebrated but are so crucial to all of us.
And in the subject of love I think we might just have one of the few things that we can all agree on right now. I’ve spent much of my life making films which give glimpses into humanity’s darker sides, but I feel we also need stories that celebrate our commonalities and pull us together – probably now more than ever!
Beyond this both of them were involved closely throughout the edit and their children, Emelie and Karl Von Schedvin, serve as producers.
Book tickets for The Cycle of Love at DocHouse here.