A packed contingent of Nordic titles is set to take part in this year’s Toronto International Film Festival

We’re less than three weeks ahead of the start of the Toronto International Film Festival, set to run from 5-15 September. This year’s edition will see a crowded contingent of Nordic titles visiting the Canadian gathering and screening across most of its main sections.

One of the ten titles selected in the Platform competition is Tallulah H. Schwab’s Mr. K, a co-production between the Netherlands, Belgium and Norway, starring Crispin Glover in the leading role. Sold by LevelK, the drama follows a travelling magician who finds himself in a Kafkaesque nightmare when he can’t find the exit of the hotel he has slept in. His attempts to get out only pull him in deeper, entangling him further with the hotel and its curious inhabitants.

“I was carried away by the script the first time I read it, and the Norwegian Film Institute supported the film with enthusiasm. I’m so proud of being part of this great film. Working with Lemming Film has been nothing but a pleasure,” co-producer Turid Øversveen, of A Private View, tells NFTVF.

“The Norwegian contribution is great; the presence of actors Bjørn Sundquist and Jan Gunnar Røise stands out, and the sound design by ShortCut is spot on. Tallulah Schwab has penned and directed an original, spooky and sometimes funny film, very well suited for the Nordic audience,” she adds.

Meanwhile, the Discovery strands host three titles with Nordic involvement; Frederik Louis Hviid’s The Quiet Ones (De Lydløse), Egil Pedersen Sápmi’s My Father’s Daughter (Biru Unjárga), and Sarra Tsorakidis’ Ink Wash.

The Quiet Ones, produced by Zentropa with Swedish and French partners, draws inspiration from real events. In the film, a group of men plan to commit the largest robbery ever on Danish soil, just as the 2008 financial crisis hits Europe.

Hviid’s solo directorial debut, sold internationally by TrustNordisk, will be distributed in key territories by Magnolia Pictures (USA), Plaion (Germany) and PoongKyong Sori (South Korea). The Nordic release is handled by Nordisk Film Distribution, and the cast is fronted by Gustav Giese, Amanda Collin, Reda Kateb and Christopher Wagelin.

Talking about the project’s inception, producer Kasper Dissing tells us: “We started in 2020 after we connected with one of the robbers from the heist the story is based on. We did not want to embark on this film without having a first-hand witness from the gang on board, to tell us his story and educate us on the life of a criminal. He has been extremely generous with his story, which we took bits and pieces from in order to create our version of the largest heist in Danish history.”

Touching on the main challenges faced by the production team, he reveals: “Trying to recreate a heist of this scale comes with a variety of challenges. Some were expected, and a lot were unexpected. We always knew we had an ambitious project ahead of us, and we needed to think extremely creatively in order to recreate the scenes we knew we had to.” He bills the action drama as “both modern and classic”, and aiming at “a broad, young audience”.

Next, My Father’s Daughter follows wistful Sámi teen Elvira (Sarah Olaussen Eira) as she discovers the truth about her father’s identity. After working together on several shorts, Rein Film producer Mathis Ståle Mathisen boarded Pedersen’s first feature.

“Being a debut, we really didn’t want to have a big budget and all the complications that come with many financiers. But it still turned out to be particularly challenging to find ways to film in the very north of Norway on such a low budget,” he discloses.

“Luckily, local financiers stepped in to help us. I’m also really proud of our producing partners, Pål Røed and Aleksander Olai Korsnes, who played a key role in finding ways to finalise the financing along the way while being really creative together with Egil and his team.”

On the potential audience which may be charmed by this coming-of-age tale, the producer says: “I think it’s really cool that teenagers in Northern Norway can experience their reality on the big screen, in their own language. We hope this film will resonate all over Norway, the Nordics, and with the rest of the world. The interest is pretty good so far, so things are looking great.” Pluto Film is in charge of the pic’s world sales.

The third title, Ink Wash, follows a disillusioned 40 year old artist called Lena (Ilinca Hărnuț) who takes refuge in her work, painting the walls of an isolated, brutalist hotel. In the midst of nature, she is forced to discover her inner strength and moral values in a country overwhelmed by corruption. Tsorakidis’ debut, sold by Shellac, is staged by Romania’s Mandragora with Greece’s Bad Crowd and Denmark’s Angel Films.

“I wanted to make a film about a young, modern woman who is allowed to be wrong and flawed. This film follows a crucial moment in a human's life, but instead of being depicted through the classical male gaze, a rare female voice is heard, which brings novelty and mystery to the story. For Lena, now is the time to take life into her own hands, shake herself out of her depression, and realise that she is responsible for her own happiness,” says Tsorakidis.

After premiering in Venice, Joshua Oppenheimer’s much-anticipated first incursion into fiction, The End, will be screened in the Special Presentations programme. The fest catalogue labels it as “a sombre musical about a family in denial at the end of the world”. Spearheaded by Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, George MacKay and Moses Ingram, The End is produced by Final Cut for Real, with German, Irish, Italian, British and Swedish partners. The Match Factory is in charge of its world sales.

Magnus von Horn’s Palme d’Or contender The Girl with the Needle (Pigen med nålen) is also screening in the same programme. Toplined by Trine Dyrholm and Vic Carmen Sonne, this post-WWI thriller revolves around one of Denmark’s most infamous child serial killers.

The last Special Presentation is Erik Poppe’s Quisling - The Final Days (Quislings siste dager), a drama focusing on the titular Prime Minister of Norway, a notorious Nazi collaborator responsible for one of the greatest betrayals during WW2. Sold by REInvent and produced by Paradox and SF Studios, the feature stars Gard B. Eidsvold and Anders Danielsen Lie as Vidkun Quisling and the priest Peder Olsen, respectively. “One reason Erik Poppe’s feature is so compelling is the director’s determination to dig more deeply into Quisling’s circumstances and motivations. The result presents him as not only a figure of great complexity, but also one with a discomfiting abundance of contemporary counterparts,” states the official fest catalogue.

Coming up next is another Cannes title and festival favourite, namely Rúnar Rúnarsson’s When the Light Breaks (Ljósbrot), a co-pro between Iceland, the Netherlands, Croatia and France. The picture is part of the Centrepiece sidebar along with Leonardo van Dijl’s Julie Keeps Quiet (Julie zwijgt) (a Belgian-Swedish co-production by De Wereldvrede, Les Films du Fleuve, HOBAB and Film i Väst), Frida Kempff’s The Swedish Torpedo (Den svenska torpeden) (a Momento Film presentation), and Luis Ortega’s Kill the Jockey (El Jockey) (co-produced by Argentina, Mexico, Spain, USA and Snowglobe in Denmark).

Moreover, two Nordic series will screen in the Primetime programme.

After setting sail to Venice’s Lido, Thomas Vinterberg’s seven-part show Families Like Ours (Familier som vores) will celebrate its North American premiere. This Danish-French-Swedish-Czech-Belgian-Norwegian-German co-pro, led by Zentropa, Studiocanal and Canal+, centres on the lives of people in Denmark in the wake of a great flood that effectively wipes the country off the map. The cast includes Amaryllis August, Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Paprika Steen, Helene Reingaard Neumann, Esben Smed, Magnus Millang, David Dencik and Thomas Bo Larsen, among others.

Directing duo Tomas Alfredson and Sara Johnsen will present their brand-new six-episode show, titled Faithless(Trolösa) and produced by Miso Film in co-production with SVT and ARTE. The story unfolds across two time periods. In the present-day storyline, the renowned 73 year old director David Howard is reunited with his former big love, 75 year old actress Marianne Vogler. Forty years prior, in the main storyline, a young David and Marianne fall in love and embark on a passionate love affair they must keep a secret, as Marianne is married to David’s best friend, Markus Vogler. Jesper Christensen and Lena Endre play the older couple, while Gustav Lindh and Frida Gustavsson portray their younger counterparts.

Finally, TIFF Docs will introduce to the Canadian audience two more titles with Nordic involvement - Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor’s tragically timely, Berlinale-premiered No Other Land (co-produced by Palestine’s Yabayay Media and Norway’s Antipode Films), and Anastasiia Bortuali’s Temporary Shelter (Tímabundið Skjól) (courtesy of Iceland’s Iris Film).