15/06/2015 - Danish features by Bille August and Susanne Bier and the debut by May el-Toukhy are screening at the Shanghai International Film Festival

Danish director May el-Toukhy's feature debut, Long Story Short [+see also:
trailer
film profile], will have its international premiere at the Shanghai International Film Festival, which began on 13 June and runs until the 21st.

Also, veteran Danish directors Bille August's Silent Heart [+see also:
film review
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film profile] and Susanne Bier's A Second Chance [+see also:
film review
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film profile] have been selected for the programme – earlier this year, Bier's film was one of the seven Danish entries at the Beijing International Film Festival.

"We have increased the focus on collaboration with China, so we are pleased to see the interest in Danish cinema at the country's leading showcases," said festival consultant Lizette Gram Mygind, of the Danish Film Institute.

A graduate in production management, then in directing from the National Film School of Denmark, el-Toukhy has herself written the script with Maren Louise Käehne; the screenplay is a summary of the love-related highs and lows for a group of friends in their late thirties and early forties, and spans one year. 

Mille Hoffmeyer Lehfeldt, Jens Albinus, Trine Dyrholm and Danica Curcic have joined the ensemble cast struggling with the concept of the perfect relationship through eight chapters, all set at a party – New Year's Eve, a wedding, a housewarming, a birthday and an anniversary, among others. 

Already released in Denmark by Filmcompagniet, Long Story Short was produced by Caroline Blanco and Christian Steengaard Potalivo, of Copenhagen's Miso Film, who will be in Shanghai with el-Toukhy for the screening.

Already touring the festival circuit, and having won Best Actress (for Paprika Steen) at San Sebastian, among other prizes, Oscar winner August's Silent Heart (2014) was awarded both the Danish Film Academy's Robert (one) and the Danish Film Critics' Bodil (four, including Best Danish Feature).

Bier, who scripted A Second Chance with Anders Thomas Jensen (they also collaborated on her Oscar-winning In A Better World [+see also:
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film profile] in 2010), has also been doing the rounds with her new feature, which was launched earlier this year, snagging the Signis Award at San Sebastian, among other accolades.