28/01/2014 - Swedish director Kay Pollak prepares independent sequel for his Oscar-nominated As It Is in Heaven (2004), Danish director Tobias Lindholm’s A War takes place in Afghanistan

In his first film in 10 years, Swedish writer/director Kay Pollak returns to the small Swedish village of his Oscar-nominated As It Is in Heaven [+see also:
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film profile] (2004), where the world-famous conductor Daniel Daréus was born. Daréus has interrupted his international career to return to his childhood’s Ljusåker in the northernmost part of Sweden, where he takes over the local church choir, which develops and grows. When he passes away, he leaves behind him not only the choir, but also the love of his life, the soprano Lena, who is expecting their child.

Scripted by Carin and Kay Pollak, Heaven on Earth is the independent sequel of As It Is in Heaven, depicting what happened to the villagers after Daréus’ (Michael Nyqvist) death, with a cast of, ao, Frida Hallgren, André Sjöberg, Lennart Jähkel and Niklas Falk who were also in the original film. SF International will start sales at the European Film Market in Berlin, of the Anders Birkeland production for GF Studios, with Svensk Filmindustri.

Concluding the trilogy of award-winning  R [+see also:
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film profile] (co-directed by Michael Noer/2010) and A Hijacking [+see also:
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interview: Tobias Lindholm
film profile] (2012), Danish director Tobias Lindholm’s A War [+see also:
film review
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interview: Tobias Lindholm
film profile] – which received one of the four $10,000 Sundance Institute-Mahindra Global Filmmaking Awards announced at the Sundance Film Festival – will star Danish actor Pilou Asbæk as the major of a Danish unit in Afghanistan, facing the consequences of his actions in the aftermath of his most dangerous mission.

The trilogy depicts “desperate men in small rooms” – in R, Asbæk was as a young convict in a hardcore prison ward, while in A Hijacking, a ship’s cook is taken hostage by pirates on the Indian Ocean. Produced by Tomas Radoor and René Ezra for Nordisk Film Production, A War will shoot from this autumn.