16/09/2014 - “Mer” means “more” in Norwegian, but to Norwegian producer Maria Ekerhovd, it should also mean “different”

When Norwegian director Ole Giæver’s Out of Nature [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ole Giæver
film profile] is launched in Norway on 19 September, following its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, it will constitute the first of three autumn releases from Norwegian producer Maria Ekerhovd’s Mer Film – to be followed up by Norwegian directors Gunnar Vikene’s Here Is Harold [+see also:
trailer
interview: Gunnar Vikene
film profile], on 31 October, and Bobbie Peers’ The Disappearing Illusionist [+see also:
trailer
interview: Bobbie Peers
film profile], on 25 December.

A media production major from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Ekerhovd started her company Mer Film (“mer” means “more” in Norwegian) in 2006, and her first production, Peers’ short Sniffer, became the first Norwegian film to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes International Film Festival. Now she has 18 producer’s credits on her CV.

“It was always my ambition to be involved in making good films. I want to make movies that stand out, and when audiences have seen one of them, I want them to say, 'Yes, that was a good film, and it was different.' That is also the reason why I mostly work with directors who have a personal artistic vision and the ability to transcend borders, artistically as well as geographically,” Ekerhovd explained.

A portrait of a family father in his 30s, who feels alienated and longs to get away – from his job, from his family, into the woods, into the mountains – Out of Nature follows him as he spends a weekend alone on a hiking trip, on which he is forced to face up to the way he lives his life.

“It is such a courageous and original film – Giæver wrote and directed it, and plays the lead; he undresses, physically and in other ways, and he talks about being a man in Norway today, from the trivialities we all think about when we are alone, to the discussion of major existential questions. He does it with humour, but he is also serious – I do not think we have ever seen such a film before, whether in Norway or abroad,” she concluded.