15/04/2013 - While Norwegian directors Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning's Golden Globe and Oscar-nominated feature Kon-Tiki opens at No 1 in Denmark, the wooden raft is on its way to New York

Two weeks before Easter, project manager Torgeir Sæverud Higraff was called by US distributor The Weinstein Company: "Is it possible ship the Kon-Tiki to New York in time for for the American launch of the film?" “I think they were sure it wasn’t possible – but now it is on the way, to be presented on the Hudson on April 22, prior to the all-American premiere on April 26,” said Higraff, who designed the balsa wooden raft used in Norwegian directors Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning’s Golden Globe and Oscar-nominated feature Kon-Tiki [+see also:
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Produced by Aage Aaberge and Jeremy Thomas for Nordisk Film Production and Norway/UK’s Recorded Picture Company, Norway’s so far most expensive movie (€12.3 million) follows Norwegian anthropologist and explorer Thor Heyerdahl and his five scientists on their 1947 voyage from South America to the Polynesian on the Kon-Tiki, the Inca name for the Sun God.

Heyerdahl set off on April 28, 1947, and reached Raroia in the Pacific 101 days later. To Higraff, “besides being the most famous Norwegian, he has been my hero since early childhood” almost 60 years later - between April and August, 2006 – he staged and led the same expedition, raised the money, found the crew, had the vessel built (under the name of Tangaroa) at the navy shipyard in Callao, Peru, wrote a book and launched several documentaries.

Four metres shorter, with a mast reduced by five metres and 60 square metres less sail, Tangaroa performed in the Kon-Tiki production, which was shot during 20 weeks in six countries (Norway, Sweden, Bulgaria, Malta, Thailand and the US) with a cast comprising Pål Sverre Hagen, Odd-Magnus Wiliamson, Tobias Santelmann, Anders Baasmi Christiansen, Jakob Oftebro, Agnes Kittelsen and Swedish actor Gustaf Skarsgård.

Before it will be displayed on the Hudson, Higraff – who otherwise works on an Arctic project in Greenland – took the 15-tonne raft from Larvik, where it is based, to the royal gala at the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet in Oslo, attended by King Harald V and Queen Sonja, visiting 26 Norwegian harbours. He will be working for The Weinstein Company during the presentation in New York.

While the English-language version of the film – shot back-to-back with the Norwegian-ao-languages-version – is waiting for its US launch, Denmark’s Nordisk Film Biograf Distribution last week released the original feature, which came in at No 1 on the charts with 40,035 admissions (April 7), as the best Norwegian opening ever. Domestically, the film has sold more than 900,000 tickets.