Four heavyweights get DFI support
by Annika Pham
Four established Scandinavian filmmakers have just received a total of DKK 18,3m (€2.4m) support from the Danish Film Institute (DFI) for their new feature film projects.
Veteran Swedish filmmaker Jan Troell will take up the theme of poverty, already wonderfully explored in his award-winning film The Emigrants (1971), but this time set in the early 1900s. His new project, Maria Larsson’s evige øjeblik) (lit. “Maria Larsson’s Everlasting Moment”), co-scripted by Troell with his wife Agneta Ulfsäter Troell and Niklas Rådström, is set in Sweden’s Region of Skåne in the early 1900s.
Based on a true story, it focuses on the life of Maria Larsson, a proud woman who puts up with her harsh everyday life thanks to the art of photography that she discovers when she wins a camera through the National Lottery. The film, which received DK5.5m support from the DFI, is being produced by Thomas Stenderup (Final Cut Productions) and will be released in Denmark in 2007 through Sandrew Metronome.
Ole Bornedal (Nightwatch) will make another thriller, entitled Kærlighed på film (lit. “Love on Film”), based on his own script. It tells the story of Jonas, a family man who is mistakes for the new exotic lover of a young woman who has had an accident and lost her memory. Through a new identity, a new life opens up for him, though not for long. Michael Obel’s Thura Film is producing the film, which was awarded DK7.8m from the DFI. The premiere is set for 2007.
Jørgen Leth, the famous documentary filmmaker who teamed up with Lars von Trier in 2003 for The Five Obstructions, a kind of remake of Leth’s 1967 short film The Perfect Human, will direct and act in Det erotiske Menneske (lit. “The Erotic Man”). Produced by Marianne Christensen for Nordisk Film Production and Zentropa Entertainment, the films tells the story of an anthropologist who sets for himself the task of describing the essence of eroticism. The DFI granted DK3m to the project.
The director of many successful local comedies, Hella Joof will direct the new teen comedy Under ombygning (lit. “Under Construction”), produced in Sweden by SF Film and co-produced in Denmark by Fine & Mellow Productions A/S. The film, which was awarded DK2m, will be finished in February 2007.
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