The Danish sales agent will present its rich slate, including features such as Speak No Evil as well as some much-anticipated series such as Lars von Trier’s The Kingdom Exodus
Danish sales agent TrustNordisk will present a rich slate of productions at this year’s European Film Market, unspooling digitally from 10-17 February. The first of these is Christian Tafdrup’s psychological horror Speak No Evil [+] (selected by Sundance and Göteborg), revolving around a Danish family befriending a Dutch family. However, it doesn't take long before the joy of reunion is replaced with misunderstandings, and the small Danish family will find themselves trapped in a house that they wish they had never entered.
Also taking part in Göteborg is Christoffer Sandler’s So Damn Easy Going. This coming-of-age story focuses on Joanna, whose mind is described as “a flashing amusement park at peak season.” She is 18 years old and needs ADHD meds to keep her buzzy brain in order. With a depressed father whose sick pay barely covers the rent, money runs out, and Joanna can’t afford her medication. In the midst of the chaos, the charming and confident Audrey appears.
Recently covered by Cineuropa (see the news), Hallvar Witzø’s Everybody Hates Johan, it has been described as an explosive comedy about the titular character, a small town loner with a flair for dynamite who finds himself in constant conflict with the rural community.
The fourth title of this line-up is Petter Næss’ Nothing to Laugh About, selected at least year’s Zurich Film Festival. The movie zooms in on Kasper Berntsen, a 40-year-old successful stand-up comedian. Everything changes when Kasper is laid off and loses his regular gig, and the same night he gets home, his girlfriend leaves him. To make matters even worse, Kasper finds out that he has incurable cancer. It promises to be “a heart-warming story of Kasper’s life coping with a serious illness, and how he gains a newfound self-belief and finds laughter again.”
One of the 13 genre projects presented at last year’s Frontières Platform during the Marché du Film, Karoline Lyngbye’s psychological drama Superposition tells the story of a creative couple and their young son, who leave their urban life in Copenhagen behind in favour of an isolated forest in Sweden. There, they hope to reignite the spark in their relationship and find themselves as individuals. But they soon learn to be careful what they wish for as they are forced to fight for their lives against identical copies of themselves.
Malou Reymann’s Unruly, presented as WIP at Göteborg’s Nordic Film Market, is set in 1933 and focuses on 17-year-old Maren, who is sent to the women’s institution at Sprogø to become more compliant. The stay at Sprogø has the opposite effect on Maren, and she ignites a spark in Sørine, who after six years at the institution has become accustomed to the norms of the time and the expectations of the institution. Slowly, the two begin to form an unbreakable bond.
Meanwhile, Gabriel Bier Gislason’s Attachment, starring Josephine Park, Ellie Kendrick, Sofie Gråbøl and David Dencik, has been labelled as “a horror romance steeped in Jewish folklore.” The next title is Frelle Petersen’s Forever, a “life-affirming family drama” set in Southern Jutland.
World-premiered at San Sebastian, Nordic by Nature dives into the mind of young chef Poul Andrias Ziska to explore the culinary pearl KOKS, a restaurant operating in the sub-polar climate.
The two animation films on the sales agent’s slate are Amalie Næsby Fick’s Little Allan – The Human Antenna, which centres on Little Allan who is talked into acting as a human antenna for his old UFO-obsessed neighbour who thinks a huge invasion fleet from outer space is on its way, and Rasmus A. Sivertsen’s Just Super, which revolves around Hedvig, an 11-year-old gaming enthusiast forced to replace her father as the town’s superhero much earlier than expected.
TrustNordisk’s line-up is rounded off by two much-anticipated series. The first is the five-part third season of Lars von Trier’s legendary series The Kingdom – titled The Kingdom Exodus – whilst the second is The Dreamer – Becoming Karen Blixen, starring Connie Nielsen in the lead role. She will portray the titular writer, “a woman who struggles to escape her own demons, the expectations of her family as well as social norms to gain personal liberty and become her true self.”
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