12/12/2005

In his critically-acclaimed marionette puppet film Strings, Anders Rønnow-Klarlund had explored the theme of human lives controlled by invisible hands. In his new feature film How To Get Rid Of The Others previously known as John, Gerda, China and Melanie, the Danish filmmaker has teamed up again with scriptwriter Rasmus Botoft to describe another kind of human control exerted this time by the State. The film is set in a futuristic Denmark where 20% of the local population is incarcerated by the Ministry of Justice because they have abused the welfare state system. Citizens have to go through a test to check on their use for society. If they fail, they risk a death sentence.

The satire is played by a string of Danish stars including Søren Pilmark (King’s Game), Louise Mieritz (Accused), Søren Fauli, Lene Tiemroth, Lene Poulsen, Poul Glargaard and Marie Caroline Schjeldal. The €1.1m film produced by Louise Vesth for Zentropa will be ready for mid 2006. Trust Film Sales already pre-sold the project to a handful of territories at the last AFM, notably Filmfreak Distributie for Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg, California Films for Brazil and Seville Pictures for Canada.