'Emotional train wreck': Filming of Swissair Flight 111 movie hits close to home

Action on the set of the drama ‘111’ being filmed in Halifax, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. The film revolves around the tragic crash of Swissair Flight 111 into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Halifax in 1998 with filming taking place in Nova Scotia as well as in Switzerland. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese

HALIFAX — Kris Holden-Ried, clad in a dark pea coat and bright red scarf, stands in a patch of sunlight on the edge of Griffin's Pond in the Halifax Public Gardens, with the early morning light casting a glow on him as he looks across the water.

The Canadian-born actor isn't taking in the sights of the lush trees and urban waterfowl -- he's shooting a film in which he plays Saul, a bereaved father from Westchester, N.Y., recently arrived in Halifax to identify the remains of his son killed in the crash of Swissair Flight 111.

Set to premiere next year, the film "111" is a joint Canadian-Swiss production that follows the interwoven stories of four people in the aftermath of the Sept. 2, 1998 Swissair crash near Peggy's Cove, N.S. The MD-11 jet plunged into the Atlantic Ocean about 70 minutes into a routine flight from New York City to Geneva after a fire broke out in the ceiling and caused several system failures. All 229 people on board were killed.

Director Mauro Mueller said the film focuses on people, not the crash itself, and on the hope that emerges from grief.

"(The crash) is very much in the consciousness of all the Swiss, but also the Canadian (people)," Mueller said in an on-set interview with The Canadian Press on the crew's last day of filming in Nova Scotia. "We know what happened. It didn't make sense to really dramatize the crash in itself and the tragedy."

In addition to Saul, the drama follows two Swiss characters: one who loses her mother and a Swiss airline worker who travels to Halifax after the crash as part of a care team. The film also follows some of the Nova Scotia fishermen who were the first ones on the water to search for survivors.

Nova Scotia was especially rocked by the crash. Several fishers raced out to Peggy's Cove -- a famous tourist site southwest of Halifax -- as soon as they heard the thunderous boom of the plane hitting the ocean, only to return plagued by the horrors of the scene.

Holden-Ried, who has also appeared in the television series "The Umbrella Academy," said filming in Nova Scotia added to the weight of an already emotional project. Many of the locals he spoke to when shooting in Peggy's Cove had a personal story about the tragedy. Hearing those stories, he said, contributed to the sense of "enormous responsibility" of getting the film done right.

"It's an important part of their lives and you can tell the emotionality of the locals when they're telling their stories," he said. "It's enough distance and it's still a very important part of (people's) lives and you can tell, but they're very supportive. They're happy we're shooting it here."

The location wasn't the only thing that tied the cast and crew directly to the tragedy. Björn Hering, a Swiss producer on the film, is the son-in-law of one of the pilots on Swissair Flight 111's last voyage.

Holden-Ried said those close family ties made being on set an "emotional train wreck."

"We're all crying every day," he said.

As a form of reprieve from heavy scenes in the film, the script incorporates what the crew called "magic moments," or short points in the film designed to offer the audience some breathing room. Inspired by the magical realism often present in Latin American literature and film, Mueller said these moments are designed to "externalize the feeling of each character in a key moment of the film and cinematically visualize that moment."

Other Nova Scotia sites featured in the film include the Halifax airport, Hatchet Lake, and Terence Bay. The rest of the production will be shot in Switzerland.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 10, 2024.

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