21/08/2013 - Backstabbing for Beginners - the first feature from the Nordic-American Creative Alliance – will be directed by Danish director Per Fly

Danish director Per Fly (photo), who launched his new feature Waltz for Monika – the biopic of Swedish singer-actress Monica Zetterlund – in the Nordic Focus at the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund (August 15-22), will direct Backstabbing for Beginners, the first project developed for the international market by Creative Alliance, instigated earlier this year by six Nordic directors and US production outfit Parts and Labor.

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Fly is currently working on the screenplay with US writer Daniel Pyne (The Sum of All Fears/2002, The Manchurian Candidate/2004) about the Danish whistleblower, whose efforts disclosed how the United Nation’s Oil-for-Food programme became the most corrupt enterprise ever overseen by the international community. In 2004, a UN employee, Michael Soussan, was the first insider to call for an independent investigation of the organisation’s dealings with Saddam Hussein, as described in his book Backstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course in International Diplomacy.

Earlier this year, Fly, his Danish colleagues Thomas Vinterberg, Lone Scherfig, Ole Christian Madsen, Janus Metz and Icelandic director Dagur Kári set up Creative Alliance in collaboration with Danish producers Nicolaj Vibe Michelsen, Jacob Jørgensen and Parts and Labor, to “combine the best of Scandinavian film traditions with the strength and scale of the American film industry.” With the Danish Film Institute and Scandinavian and European funds, the new venture has secured finance for the first six projects – one for each director.