Hella Joof guarantees there will be a Happy Ending
- The Danish director is reuniting the team behind her successful dramedy All Inclusive to show what happens to love in old age
“We will make a beautiful, funny, sad, loving and sexually charged film about the older generation of people – those with home equity, those who go on package tours. We will explore the rusty love between them and their sexuality, and we will be delighted to know that it is never too late – what may look like a tragedy can be the gateway to unreclaimed territory,” said Danish actress-turned-director Hella Joof about Happy Ending, which she will shoot on the island of Funen, Denmark.
Joof, who most recently helmed the TV series Splitting Up Together (2016) for commercial broadcaster TV2 Danmark, has reunited the team behind her 2014 dramedy All Inclusive [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which sold more than 410,000 tickets in Danish cinemas: screenwriter Mette Heeno, cinematographer Kim Høgh Mikkelsen, production designer Mette Rio and producer Mie Andreasen, who will bring the project to fruition for Happy Ending Film & TV, with TV2 Danmark, Danish regional film centre FilmFyn and Nordisk Film.
Her new comedy is “about a topic that has not been paid much attention in Danish film before: it explores what happens to love when we are retired and realise that life is too short not to live it”. In the movie, Helle is very much looking forward to her workaholic husband Peter finally retiring, so that they can enjoy their twilight years and each other’s company, and go on some of the many travels he had never previously had the time to. But then he comes home from his last day at work with the happy news that he is now going to be a wine importer and commute between Denmark and France. Helle and Peter drift apart, and both set out to explore new possibilities, problems and dreams. But can you start all over again after 50 years of marriage? And will they be able to cope without each other?
Top Danish actors Birthe Neumann (five Robert Awards from the Danish Film Academy, two Bodils from the Danish Film Critics) and Kurt Ravn (two Bodils) head up the cast, which also includes Marianne Høgsbro, Mette Munk Plum, Charlotte Sieling, Tammi Øst, Kurt Drejer and Rikke Bilde. Nordisk has scheduled the local premiere for 25 December 2018.
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