These weeks Zentropa is working hard on the planning of its fourth and final film from the extremely popular Department Q-series. At a press conference today at Film I Väst in Cannes, Zentropa has announced that a director for the film has been found and will be the award-winning director Christoffer Boe.
The prior films in the Department Q series, THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES (2013), THE ABSENT ONE (2014) and A CONSPIRACY OF FAITH (2015) all had record-bursting local admission numbers and were each sold world wide, including territories USA, United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy, Benelux, Turkey, Russia, Eastern Europe, China, Japan and more.
With around 2,2 million admissions locally for the first three movies of the Department Q-series, the expectations for THE PURITY OF VENGEANCE will be incredibly high.
Producer of THE PURITY OF VENGEANCE, Louise Vesth from Zentropa, says: ”The time has come for the great finally. It's been a long, amazing journey that will end with a bang. We will do anything to finish this in the greatest way possible, and what could be a better way to end than with Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Fares Fares in the company of one of the most talented people in Danish film, Christoffer Boe."
Christoffer Boe looks forward to working with THE PURITY OF VENGEANCE, saying: “I look forward to delve into Carl Mørck and his mysteries. Not to break him down - but to build him up and find new ways and new expressions, within the popular. I really look forward to taking those first steps with Nikolaj Lie Kaas og Fares Fares - and the whole team behind the series, which is some of the strongest and most entertaining work, Danish film has put forth.”
The story initiates when a group of construction workers makes a terrifying discovery in an old Copenhagen apartment: Behind a fake wall in the apartment they find three mummified corpses sitting around a dinner table with one open seat. Detective Carl Mørck and his assistant Assad in Department Q is given the task of finding out who the mummies are and for whom the fourth seat is intended.
Carl and Assad initiates the chase of the apartments owner and find clues leading back to the infamous women´s institution on Sprogø, where neglect and medicinal experiments of forced sterilization was a common part of every day life for the so-called immoral girls placed there. The horrors on Sprogø are a finished chapter of Danish history. But there are people who say that the experiments continues at the facility. Carl and Assad initiate a race with time to prevent more murders and assaults.
About Christoffer Boe
Christoffer Boe´s first feature film RECONSTRUCTION (2003) won the Camera d´Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and his second feature film ALLEGRO (2005), starring Helena Christensen and Ulrich Thomsen, screened at Sundance Film Festival.
At the Venice Film Festival in 2006, Christoffer Boe received the Young Cinema Award for the experimental film OFFSCREEN (2006). With the thriller EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE (2010) (selected for Director´s Fortnight in Cannes 2010) Christoffer Boe made a pure genre film, and with SPIES & GLISTRUP (2013) he achieved his popular break through. The film had more than 300.000 admissions in Denmark and received three Robert awards.
Experienced power-trio behind the script
Nikolaj Arcel will be writing the manuscript, with the assistance of Bo Hr. Hansen and Mikkel Nørgaard. Nikolaj Arcel wrote the three first movies and while he has been working on his Hollywood debut with the much anticipated THE DARK TOWER starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, he has been working on the script for THE PURITY OF VENGEANCE along with the experienced Bo Hr. Hansen and Mikkel Nørgaard, the latter of which directed the first two movies of the series.
The movie will have a budget of EUR 5.2 M and shooting will commence in the beginning of next year with expected local release in fall 2018. ZDF German Television Network and ZDF Enterprises are on board as partners as with the prior films and nordic distribution will be through Nordisk Film.
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