09/07/2015 - The Danish director’s sophomore effort follows a small family trying to reach Sweden with the help of – among others – his own grandfather

When the Nazi German occupants of Denmark during World War II launched their Holocaust operation to deport the Danish Jews, they found only 500 – 95% had managed to escape, mainly to Sweden, since rumours about the campaign had begun to spread in September 1943. 

Danish director Nicolo Donato’s second feature (after Brotherhood [+see also:
film review
trailer
Interview Nicolo Donato [IT]
interview: Nicolo Donato
film profile] in 2009) follows a Jewish family – the jazz musician Arne Itkin, his wife Miriam and their five-year-old son Jacob – who leave their home, trying to find local fishermen who will sail them from Gilleleje to Sweden. Nazi collaborators and the Gestapo are on their tail, and in Fuglene over sundet [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (lit: “Birds across the Sound”), they have to put their fate in the hands of strangers and trust them with their lives – one of them is the fisherman NB, the director’s grandfather. 

“In October 1943, the Danish people showed a courage that took everyone by surprise – not least themselves,” explained Donato. “People who had never taken a wrong step or done anything illegal chose to risk their lives for fellow citizens in need, and as a result, nearly all Danish Jews were saved from the Nazis. This is one of the most remarkable events during the German occupation, and this is the film about these brave people.”

With a cast including Danica Curcic, David Dencik, Laura Bro, Jakob Cedergren, Nicolas Bro, Signe Egholm Olsen, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard and Lars Brygmann, Fuglene over sundet will be produced by Peter Bech and Tristan Orpen Lynch for SF Film, in co-production with Ireland’s Subotica Films. SF Film will handle Scandinavian distribution and has scheduled the premiere for autumn 2016, while TrustNordisk is in charge of international sales.