25/04/2006

Two emerging Norwegian directors have been selected for this year’s Cannes official selection: Stefan Faldbakken and his feature debut Uro [+see also:
trailer
film profile], chosen for Un Certain Regard, and Bobbie Peers, whose Sniffer will compete for Best Short Film. Last time Norway had a film in the official selection’s sidebar was in 1994 with Unni Straume’s Dreamplay.

Faldbakken (34), who studied feature film production at Stockholm’s Dramatiska Institutet, was immediately thrown into the limelight with his graduation short Major and Minor Miracles, nominated for an Oscar in the Best Live Action Short Film category in 2000. In 2001, his short film The Cosmonaut screened in competition in Venice.

Uro is a thriller starring Nicolai Cleve Broch and Berlin 2006 Shooting Star Ane Dahl Tor. Co-written by Faldbakken with Harald Rosenløw Eeg (Hawaii, Oslo [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), the film tells the story of Hans Petter, an ex-delinquent turned undercover police officer. On an assignment, he meets a former schoolmate Mette and her friend Marco. When Hans Petter discovers that Marco is part of a network of drug dealers, he decides to use Mette to get closer to Marco without informing his colleagues in the police force.

The film was produced by upcoming production duo Asle Vatn and Christian Fredrik Martin from Friland Film, whose production credit includes Norway’s 2006 Oscar entry and multi-award winning film Kissed By Winter [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Peer, who graduated in 1999 from the London International Film School, has worked as a scriptwriter and illustrator. His short film Sniffer, produced by Maria Ekerhovd and Glenn Gardner, is set in a society where everyone has the ability to fly and citizens anchor themselves to the ground via gravitation boots. One day, a man loosens his bindings and literally takes off.