06/03/2013 - Still to be premiered in Norway, Mikkel Brænne Sandemose's second feature Ragnarok sold to Magnolia Pictures for US distribution

After film school, Norwegian director Mikkel Brænne Sandemose (photo) directed a short comedy, I Killed a Cyclist. After a music video and several hundreds of commercials, some award-winning, he shot his first feature, Cold Prey III: The Beginning (2010), a slasher set in the 1980s at an abandoned hotel where a group of Norwegian teenagers are chased by a psychotic killer.

His second, Ragnarok [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a contemporary story of a Norwegian archaeologist who wants to explore secret of the Oseberg ship, from the Viking Age, was presented on a three-minute promo from Denmark’s international sales agency, TrustNordisk, at the European Film Market during the recent Berlin International Film Festival.

“I cannot recall having seen an action-adventure film of this standard and production value coming out of Scandinavia,” said Rikke Ennis, CEO of TrustNordisk. – “Ragnarok has all the makings of a terrific film,” added Eamonn Bowles, president of Magnolia Pictures, who signed the contract to attach it to the company’s slate of Nordic releases.

Scripted by John Kåre Raake, and starring Pål Sverre Hagen (Kon-Tiki [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), Nicolai Cleve Broch, Elisabeth Sofia Helin and Leif Bjørn Sundquist, Ragnarok follows Hagen as the archaeologist obsessed with the idea that the Oseberg ship contains the answer to the mystery of Ragnarok, which - in Norse mythology – was the end of the world.

With his two children, he goes on an expedition, which takes them to 'no man’s land' between Norway and Russia, and the secret they are revealing is more frightening than they had imagined. The film is produced by Martin Sundland and Are Heidenstrøm for Fantefilm Fiksjon; Nordisk Film Distribusjon will release in October, and international sales are handled by TrustNordisk.