The Hunter takes a good shot, but A Pigeon cracks the record

by Jorn Rossing Jensen

28/10/2011 - Swedish director Roy Andersson (pictured)'s A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, concluding his 'Living' trilogy of Songs from the Second Floor (2001) and You, the Living [trailer, film focus] (2007), received €650,000 Eurimages finance, when the co-production fund split €6.2 million between 19 European joint ventures.

Currently shooting for a 2013-1014 delivery, the €4.5 million production is realised by Pernilla Sandström for Roy Andersen Filmproduktion-Studio 24, with France's Societé Parisienne de Production, Norway's 4½ Fiksjon and Germany's Essential Filmproduktion.

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Scripted by Andersson and titled from a detail in Pieter Brueghel's 1565 painting (a pigeon overlooking a snow landscape crowded with people) Hunters in the Snow focuses on two men - a travelling salesman and his friend, who is slightly mentally disturbed; the seller explains why society is how it is. Philippe Bober's Paris-based The Co-production Office handles international sales.

Danish Dogma director Thomas Vinterberg (The Celebration (1998)) received €330,000 for The Hunter, a drama produced by Sisse Graum Jørgensen for Denmark's Zentropa Entertainments and Zentropa International Sweden.

Co-written by Tobias Lindholm, who also scripted Submarino [trailer, film focus] (2010) with Vinterberg, The Hunter is a 40-year-old man in a small town, whose life is finally back on track after a tough divorce, with a new job and a new girlfriend. But it comes to an end when a five-year-old makes a remark that suggests he has abused her. Denmark's TrustNordisk will start presales at the AFM.

Also on Eurimages' list of supported Nordic co-productions are Norwegian director Erik Skjoldbjærg's oil-rush thriller Pioneer, from Norway's Friland, with Sweden's Garagefilm International AB and Germany's Pandora Filmproduktion; French director Marina de Van's Dark Touch, co-produced by Sweden's Filmgate; Irish director Lance Daly's Life's a Breeze (Sweden's Anagram produktion).