Danish queer sex drama “Sauna,” a Sundance Festival hit, has closed its first significant international market deals, sales house TrustNordisk liscensing North America to Breaking Glass, Germany to Salzgeber & Co Medien and Spain to Filmin.
Nordisk Film Distribution will bow “Sauna” in Denmark on April 24.
The sales underscore an early pattern in early 2025 international deal-making. much driven by genre, animation, star auteurs and also breakout auteurs playing off “A” fest acclaim. Given the relative rapidity of the deals, more will be in the offing.
“We are incredibly proud of the international journey ‘Sauna’ is taking,” said TrustNordisk Managing Director Susan Wendt. “It’s truly wonderful to see this bold, honest and deeply human story resonating with audiences beyond Denmark. With key sales to North America, Germany, and Spain, ‘Sauna’ proves that powerful and authentic voices from Danish cinema can travel far and touch hearts across borders.”
The sales deals also see Trust Nordisk parlaying “Sauna’s” upbeat critical reception at Sundance where it made its world premiere in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition.
The feature debut of Mathias Broe – whose nonfiction title “Amfi” was nominated for a best short documentary Danish Academy Award in 2020 – “Sauna” turns on Johan (Magnus Juhl Andersen) a young man from the countryside who is looking for a deeper connection than the first flush of quick fix sex he has at Adonis, Copenhagen’s sole gay sauna, where he works. He finds that with transgender William, a middle-class student, played by trans-masc comedian and actor Nina Rask. But as the magic of early sex fades, Johan, a classic cis gay, doesn’t listen to William’s needs, who as Guy Lodge notes in his Variety review, is “still finding his place in a masculine sphere that isn’t always accepting of his body or his desires.” A gulf grows between Jonas and William.
In “Sauna,” a “gay man sees queer life through another lens in a sensitive Danish drama,” Lodge noted.
“Little touches, like scenes in which Johan douches on the toilet or casually cleans up cum in the sauna, further ground the film as distinctly queer in ways a straight filmmaker could never understand,” Indie Wire added.
Written by William Lipperts in collaboration with Broe, “Sauna” adapts Mads Ananda Lodahl’s novel. Mads-August Hertz produces for Nordisk Film Production, with “Sauna” receiving support by New Danish Screen at the Danish Film Institute, public broadcaster DR and Nordisk Film Distribution.
“It’s the first time we have a trans person in a leading role in a feature film in Denmark. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have made this movie,” Broe told Variety.
“I’m a part of the queer community and my partner started transitioning while we were doing the film,” he added. “I used to identify as a classic cis gay, but over the years my own identity has expanded and so has our environment. When we think about the LGBTQ+ umbrella, everyone assumes it’s the same struggle, but people fight different fights.”
Launched by Richard Wolff in 2009, Breaking Glass provides theatrical or TVOD, SVOD, AVOD distribution in North America, with a strong line in LGBTQ+ movies.
Berlin-based Salzgeber & Co Medien handles theatrical, TV, and VOD distribution in Germany and German-speaking territories with a traditional focus on queer and documentary cinema.
Founded in 2007 in Barcelona, Filmin operates as an upscale SVOD service for independent films plus series, mostly sourced from Europe, as well as a film distributor and producer.