13/11/2013 - After raiding the local box office, Norwegian director Nils Gaup’s family-adventure has been sold to 116 territories – and will be released on 255 screens in Germany

Last year Norwegian director Nils Gaup’s family-adventure Journey to the Christmas Star [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - the second film version of Norwegian author Sverre Brandt’s 1924 play – accounted for 61% of total attendance for local features, with Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning’s Kon-Tiki [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. Gaup’s 443,188 admissions were second to Espen Sandberg-Rønning’s 881,658.

Meanwhile Gaup’s family-adventure has been licensed to 116 territories by Germany’s Sola Media, and in 18 the Sigurd Mikal Karoliussen-Jan Eirik Langøen production for Moskus Film will be premiered before Christmas – including Germany, where Polyband Medien will launch it on 255 screens (against 100 for Kon-Tiki, or 133 for another Norwegian blockbuster, Headhunters [+see also:
trailer
film profile]). “This is certainly the largest theatrical release so far of a Norwegian film in Germany,” said head of international relations-feature films Stine Oppegaard,of the Norwegian Film Institute. In France it will open in 130 cinemas.

“Journey to the Christmas Star is about an innocent person who undertakes a task which is inextricable, and exposes herself to many dangers, with strange creatures that do not exist - but it also proves that miracles exist, especially if you believe in them yourself,” Oscar-nominated Gaup (for Pathfinder 1987) explained.

Scripted by Kamilla Krogsveen and starring newcomer Vilde Marie Zeiner, Agnes Kittelsen, Anders Baasmo Christiansen and Evy Kasseth Røsten, the film was mainly shot on locations in the Czech Republic. It follows 14-year-old Sonja who hears the King tell the sad story of his daughter, Princess Goldenhair, who has disappeared on her search for the Christmas Star. Only if he finds it within the next few days will Goldenhair return – otherwise she will be lost forever. Sonja is determined to help.