The Icelandic film is produced by Join Motion Pictures’ Anton Máni Svansson (Winter Brothers, Heartstone).
Svansson who was ‘Producer on the Move’ at the last Cannes Film Festival, describes A White, White Day as a ‘mystery thriller about deception, grief, sacrifice and unconditional love’.
Icelandic star actor Sigurðsson (Of Horses and Men, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2) plays Ingimundur, a father, widower and small-town sheriff who has been off duty since his wife’s disappearance, two years earlier. While building a house for his daughter and grand-daughter, he becomes obsessed with finding the man he suspects is connected to his wife’s disappearance. Over time, his suspicion turns into an obsession that inevitably starts to affect his entourage.
Sigurðsson had the title role in the short film The Painter (2013), Pálmason’s graduating film from the National Film School of Denmark. A White, White Day just received a record support of around €900,000 from the Icelandic Film Centre towards the film’s €2.3m budget. Svansson will be looking for co-producers and a sales agent at Haugesund’ New Nordic Films (Aug. 22-25). The project is set to start filming in the summer 2018.
Join Motion Pictures is enjoying the excellent buzz on the Danish/Icelandic co-production Winter Brothers, which picked up four awards in Locarno (including Best Actor to Elliott Crosset Hove) and has sold to Greece (Strada), Poland (New Horizons), and Hungary (Vertigo) via New Europe Film Sales.
Svansson’s other protégé Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson (co-founder of Join Motion Pictures) had a similar strong festival debut with his first feature Heartstone selected at Venice Days 2016, which ended up collecting more than 37 awards.