The Oscar winning writer/director’s latest film Riders of Justice is produced by Zentropa with support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond. TrustNordisk handles sales.
One of the hottest writers in Denmark, long time collaborator to Susanne Bier and recently Robert nominated for Daniel, Anders Thomas Jensen has won an Oscar for his short film Election Night and received multiple awards for his previous films Flickering Lights (1998), The Green Butchers (2003), Adam’s Apples (2005) and Men & Chicken (2015).
All have in common Jensen’s vignette darkly absurd humour and leading actors Mads Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas. The duo are back in front of the camera for Jensen’s latest film Riders of Justice (Retfærdighedens ryttere), which just started filming on the island of Fyn and in Sweden.
Jensen’s new original story follows Markus (Mads Mikkelsen), a deployed military man who has to go home to his teenage daughter Mathilde [Andrea Heick Gadeberg from Daniel], when his wife dies in a tragic train accident. It seems to be plain bad luck, until the mathematics geek Otto (Nikolaj Lie Kaas] shows up with his two eccentric colleagues, Lennart [Lars Brygmann] and Emmenthaler (Nicolas Bro]. Otto was also a passenger on the wrecked train. He is convinced someone must have been behind it. As the clues piles up, it becomes clear to Markus, it might have been a carefully orchestrated assassination, of which his wife ended up being a random casualty.
Stellar names behind the camera include DoP Kasper Tuxen (Valhalla, Darkland), set designer Nikolaj Danielsen (Face to Face, Department Q-The Purity of Vengeance), composer Jeppe Kaas (Below the Surface, The Shamer’s Daughter, That Time of Year), costume designer Vibe Knoblauch Hededam (When the Dust Settles, The Danish Girl) and editors Nicolaj Monberg (Out Stealing Horses) and Anders Albjerg Christiansen (Ride Upon the Storm).
The DKK 39 million (€5m) film is produced by Zentropa’s Sisse Graum Jørgensen and Sidsel Hybschmann, in co-production with Film i Väst, and Zentropa Sweden, with support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond, the Danish Film Institute, Film Fyn, the Media Programme's Creative Europe. As part of a recent content collaboration signed between TV2 Denmark, Nordisk Film and leading quad play service provider YouSee, the three partners have also boarded the project, alongside Yle and SVT. Nordisk Film Distribution will release the film in Denmark on December 25, 2020.
Susan Wendt, TrustNordisk's Managing director said: “We are really excited to be on board this Zentropa production and look very much forward to diving into the quirky universe, which Anders Thomas Jensen has created in this brilliant script. We still remember the huge success we had with Green Butchers and Adam’s Apple, and we are confident that Riders of Justice will exceed the international success of these titles. Anders Thomas Jensen’s unique talent for storytelling is something that continues to attract people of all nationalities.”
TrustNordisk will start pre-selling the film at Berlin's European Film Market.
