Cannes: Five seasoned Nordic directors and three rising female directors were on hand alongside actors Hedda Stiernstedt, Josefin Asplund, Gustav Dyekjær Giese, Amanda Collin.
Long-time production partner to the leading regional film fund Film i Väst, Zentropa pitched two high profile features, repped internationally by TrustNordisk.
Back to Reality (working title) written and directed by Anders Thomas Jensen (Riders of Justice, Men & Chicken) is currently in financing stage, with partners so far confirmed including the Danish Film Institute, FilmFyn, TV2, Nordisk Film Distribution, on top of co-producers Zentropa Sweden and Film i Väst. Sisse Graum Jørgensen and Sidsel Hybschmann are producing.
The seasoned scriptwriter, co-credited most recently for Nikolaj Arcel’s anticipated The Bastard starring Mads Mikkelsen, is turning next to a story of brotherhood.
Fresh out of jail, the bank robber Anker is on his way to collect the loot. But the only one who knows where to get it is his traumatised brother, Manfred, who has meanwhile fled into an alter ego, and now knows nothing about the money. Hoping to unlock Manfred’s memory, the brothers travel to their childhood home and start digging.
“Basically it’s about forgiveness, about identity. Who we are, how we perceive each other, and tend to judge one another too quicky from a single action,” said Jensen who is currently “sitting with actors [not yet mentioned] and doing rewrites”.
The film will be shot mostly in Sweden from early 2024.
Quizzed by Film i Väst’s Head of Production Kristina Börjeson about his taste in film, Jensen said : “I don’t watch that many movies - I have four kids who watch stuff on Youtube a lot, but one of my all-time favourite is The Apartment [by Billy Wilder] and recently I watched Parasite [by Bong Joon Ho] and absolutely loved it!”
Zentropa’s The Quiet Ones is the sophomore feature by Frederik Louis Hviid (Shorta), with an A-list cast including Amanda Collin (A Horrible Woman, The Bastard), Gustav Dyekjær Giese (Northwest, Riders of Justice) and French actor Reda Kateb (Zero Dark Thirty, A Prophet). Filming is due to start in September.
The suspense drama co-written by Hviid with Anders Frithiof (A Fortunate Man, Follow the Money) is loosely based on Denmark’s most notorious heist that happened in 2008. It turns on a group of tenacious and uncompromising robbers who all share the same ambition: to succeed with the impossible, despite major obstacles.
During the press launch, Hviid who confessed having a fascination for the “anarchy of crimes” said the feature is “about the men who devote their life to crime and those that it affects”. The director said he obtained inside information from one of the real-life heist organisers who helped him “get the facts straight and the filmmaking team understand the robbers’ personal motives.”
The high quality film produced by Kasper Dissing, is a co-production with Zentropa Sweden, and Titane’s French production company Kazak Productions, with support from the Danish Film Institute, Canal+, Cine+, DR, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, The Swedish Film Institute, & The MEDIA Programme. Nordisk Film will handle the Nordic release and KMBO the French release.
Carousel, horror film by Simon Sandquist (Oscar-nominated for the short film Victor) starring Omar Rudberg (Young Royals) and Wilma Lidén (A Class Apart). The genre feature is produced by David Ovsepian and Filip Hammarström for Scandinavian Content Group.
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