11/11/2014 - After Far from the Madding Crowd, the director returns to his 1970s upbringing in a Danish academic collective

The Commune: Ulrich Thomsen, Trine Dyrholm, Julie Agnete Vang, Anne Gry Henningsen, Magnus Millang, Thomas Vinterberg, Lars Ranthe, Helene Reingaard Neumann, Sebastian Grønnegaard Milbrat, Martha Sofie Wallstrøm Hansen and Fares Fares (© Henrik Petit)

Having completed his new American take on UK author Thomas Hardy’s 1874 classic Far from the Madding Crowd [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile], with Juno Temple, Carey Mulligan and Michael Sheen in the leads (UK director John Schlesinger won an Oscar for his 1967 version), Danish director Thomas Vinterberg has started principal photography for The Commune [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
film profile], his €4.5 million return to his 1970s upbringing in a Danish academic collective north of Copenhagen. Shooting will continue for eight weeks in Denmark and in Trollhättan, Sweden. 

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Based on his own play, co-written by Mogens Rukov and staged by Vienna’s Burgtheater in 2011 – and the following year by the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen – the feature version is scripted by Vinterberg and Danish writer-director Tobias Lindholm. The duo also worked together on his Submarino [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
film profile] (2010) and the Oscar-nominated The Hunt [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
film profile] (2012), which collected 40 prizes, including a European Film Award (for Best Screenwriter) and the Nordic Council Film Prize. 

Described as “a humorous, sensitive but also painful and touching portrait of a bygone era”, and inspired by Vinterberg’s experiences at a time when freedom and community represented the idea of the perfect life – “living, discussing, arguing, making love, inspiring each other” – the film follows a young academic couple, Erik and Anna, who move into a commune in Hellerup with their daughter. In the beginning, it is like being invited into a dream, but that changes when Erik’s young lover is allowed to join them.

Danish actors Ulrich Thomsen and Trine Dyrholm, who have both appeared in two Vinterberg films together, including in his 1998 Dogme movie Festen/The Celebration, play the leads in a cast that also includes Helene Reingaard Neumann, Lars Ranthe, Fares Fares and 14-year-old newcomer Martha Sofie Wallstrøm Hansen. The Commune is staged by The Hunt producers Morten Kaufmann and Sisse Graum Jørgensen, for Zentropa Entertainments, Denmark’s Toolbox Film, Swedish regional film centre Film i Väst, Dutch Zentropa and the Netherlands’ Topkapi Films. Nordisk Film Biografdistribution will handle the Scandinavian release in autumn 2015, while TrustNordisk is in charge of international sales, having already licensed French distribution to Le Pacte.