Finnish western and Finnish nymphs set for market on Côte d'Azur

by Jorn Rossing Jensen

07/05/2012 - Swedish international sales agency, NonStop Sales, has scheduled market premieres for three Finnish features at the upcoming Cannes International Film Festival (May 16-25), including JP Siili's western actioner, Once Upon a Time in the North, which took 142,000 domestic admissions earlier this year.

Lauri Tilkanen and Mikko Leppilampi star in the 19th century drama set on the plains of Ostrobothnia, western Finland, which are controlled by groups of knife-wielding thugs, the toughs. Traditionally, the first-born son inherits everything, so when Esko - a bum and a gang leader - learns that his father will leave the Välitalo estate to his younger and exemplary brother, all hell breaks loose.

The Finnish package also includes Joona Tena's psychological thriller Body of Water [trailer], with Krista Kosonen as a big-city lawyer travelling to a remote lakeside who becomes the target of a supernatural spirit and has to confront dark family secrets, and Kimmo Koskela's portrait of Finnish accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen in Soundbreaker.

At the Marché du Film, NonStop Director Michael Werner and his staff will start pre-sales for Finnish director Miikko Oikkonen's 12x44min TV series Nymphs, about forbidden love that occurs when a young man moves in with three seductive and deadly sprites, and Swedish directors Sonny Laguna-Tommy Wiklund's horror adventure, Wither.

The Cannes line-up is concluded by Canadian director Jesse James Miller's drama-comedy Becoming Redwood; Dutch director Theres Anna's psychological drama Silent City; Norwegian director Arild Andresen's drama The Orheim Company [trailer]; and UK director Vince Wood's unfinished crime actioner Harrigan, about a nearly retired detective sergeant saving a small northern community.