Pernille August’s directorial debut unveiled at Venice

02/08/2010

Beyond, the directorial debut of Swedish star actress Pernilla August, featuring Noomi Rapace from the Millennium trilogy, is one of seven films competing in the upcoming International Critics’ Week of the Venice Film Festival (September 1-11).

“Nineteen years ago, I played Nora in Ingmar Bergman’s A Doll’s House, which screened in Venice,” said August. “It’s going to be incredibly exciting to return to that wonderful city as first-time director.”

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Based on Susanna Alakoski's winning novel Svinalängorna, the drama tells of Leena, a 34-year-old woman living in Stockholm with her husband and two daughters. When she receives a phone call informing her of her mother's death in Ystad, her troubled past as a young girl, raised by Finnish/Swedish alcoholic parents, comes back to haunt her.

August has adapted the novel with Lolita Ray. The top Nordic cast includes Ola Rapace (Noomi’s real-life husband who plays opposite his wife for the first ime), Oouti Mäenpää (Black Ice [+see also:
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The €2.2m film was produced by Helena Danielsson (Hepp Film) and Ralf Karlsson (Drakfilm) in co-production with Denmark’s Kamoli Films, Finland’s Blind Spot Pictures, Nordisk Film, Film i Skåne, SVT and Nordsvensk Filmunderhållning 7, with support from the Swedish and Danish film institutes, the Finnish Film Foundation, YLE, Nordisk Film & TV Fond and the MEDIA Programme.