12/01/2006

Finland’s biggest production company Matila Röhr Productions is making a strong start at the domestic box office in 2006 with three Finnish films at last weekend’s Top 10, all released by Nordisk Film Distribution: the romantic comedy FC Venus by Joona Tena and the WWII dramas Promise by Ilkka Vanne and Mother of Mine by Klaus Härö, this year’s Finnish entry for a Best Foreign language film Oscar nomination.

FC Venus, the story of a football match between men and women, was N°1 at the local Top 10 last weekend with 35,534 admissions from 40 screens, beating The Chronicles of Narniaby 11% in spite of its smaller print run. The film produced by MRP’s subsidiary Talent House supporting emerging local talents, has been made as an ‘instant’ remake by German production house Wüste Filmproduktion.
MRP’s other successful local release is Ilkka Vanne’s third film Promise following the lives of three women who joined the Lotta Service during WW2. Produced by MRP’s other production arm Fantasiafilmi, it was the third most watched film last weekend with over 80,000 admissions so far.
Klaus Härö’s award-winning film Mother of Mine was N°10 and it has been seen by over 160,000 people in Finland since last September.

Commenting on last weekend’s results, Peter Philipsen, Managing Director at Nordisk Film Distribution said that the present situation with three MRP productions dominating the Finnish market emphasizes the importance of local products whose market share will most certainly grow in the coming years.

MRP’s upcoming domestic release is the Russian-Finnish co-production The 9th Company by Fyodor Bondarchuk, the film about the final stages of the Afghan war which was the top grossing film in Russia and the former Soviet Republics in 2005. MRP owns the film’s distribution rights in the Nordic and Baltic countries, but the other MRP films are sold internationally by Nordisk Film International Sales.