Berlinale wrap: Nordic attendees look on the bright side of life

Finnish feature Nightborn (Yön Lapsi) from writer-director Hanna Bergholm was the only majority Nordic title in the main competition. An English language horror picture about the perils of motherhood, it was well received by genre and arthouse devotees alike. “Those who connect with its themes and rhythms will find a great deal to enjoy,” wrote Screen International.

Its producer Daniel Kuitunen of Helsinki-based outfit Komeetta hailed its inclusion as a timely boost for the Finnish sector in a period when public support for the arts is under severe threat.

“It is actually super important, since we have a right-wing government in power at the moment, and they are cutting cultural funding. We are really happy to have this [in the festival], so that we can say to the politicians that we are good at this, we know how to make great films,” Kuitunen said defiantly in an exclusive interview with the Nordisk Film and TV Fond newsletter.

Nightborn is handled in the market by Goodfellas and Anonymous Content. Even before its Berlinale premiere, it had pre-sold widely on the back of buyer enthusiasm for the director’s previous film, Hatching (Pahanhautoja). The Finnish release through SF Studios will be in November.

Other majority Nordic films in the official selection included (in Berlinale Perspectives) New York-born but Oslo-based Dara Van Dusen’s debut feature, A Prayer For The Dying, a “western” set in 1870s Wisconsin, produced by Norwegian outfit Eye Eye, and Panorama title Árru, a Sámi yoik drama from writer-director Elle Sofe Sara about a reindeer herder, produced by Stær and sold by The Yellow Affair. Both were respectfully received.

Meanwhile, Swedish outfit Second Land was a minority co-producer on Berlinale competition title Salvation (Kulturus), directed by Turkish auteur Emin Alper, and looking at the motives behind contemporary murder and genocide.

Nordic partners were also involved in the Berlinale opening film, No Good Men (Kabul Jan) by Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat, co-produced by Copenhagen and Lübeck-based Adomeit Film.

In the Forum section, Bulgarian director Ralitza Petrova’s intense psychodrama Lust (Potomak) had Swedish (Film i Väst, Silver Films) and Danish (Snowglobe) support.

Over at the Martin-Gropius-Bau, several Nordic sales agents were doing very brisk business in Berlin’s European Film Market, albeit sometimes with non-Nordic fare.

“We are having one of the best markets we’ve ever had,” said LevelK founder and CEO Tine Klint, pointing to the company’s “diverse line-up”, which runs the gamut from Anke Blondé’s Belgian competition entry Dust, about financial skullduggery in the late 1990s, to Stephen Burke’s Irish-Austrian heist comedy Chasing Millions, starring Christopher Eccleston.

“A very busy start to the year, with lots of meetings - and buyers looking for content. The meeting schedules were full, deals have been closed, and negotiations are in the the works, so we are very hopeful for a great beginning of the year,” said TrustNordisk sales director Nicolai Korsgaard of an EFM slate whose buzz titles included May el-Toukhy’s Woman, unknown (Kvinde, ukendt), Arild Frölich’s Vampyr, and Nikolaj Arcel’s My Fairytale Life (Mit livs eventyr).

Reinvent Yellow (the new company formed late last year following the merging of Danish sales outfit REInvent and leading Nordic indie Yellow Studios) announced a slew of sales exclusively to the Nordisk Film and TV Fond newsletter.

“Berlin has been very hectic, and the good thing is we have had all the relevant meetings that we needed,” chimed in Deputy Chief Executive Officer Rilke Ennis. “There’s a lot of appetite in the market, which is great.”

Reinvent Yellow’s line-up includes genre and English-language fare as well as projects in the Berlinale series market, among them Yannick Savard’s Canadian psychological thriller Convictions and Norwegian crime series The Pushover (De troskyldige) from director Magnus Berggren.

Ennis spoke of the importance of “flagship” pre-sale titles like Jo Southwell’s UK horror film The Catch, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, or chess-themed thriller Nation’s Gambit (En nasjon i sjakk) from renowned Norwegian action director John Andreas Andersen, that can attract buyers who will then look at the rest of the slate.

Deals that Ennis and her team closed so far in Berlin include Son Of Revenge: The Story of Kalavala (Kalevala: Kullervon tarina) to Spain (Twelve Oaks); Escaping Bolivia (Flukten fra Bolivia) to Poland (Media4Fun); River Of Blood to Latin America (Great Movies) and Korea (Kinolight); Meat Kills (Vleesdag) sold to Italy (Plaion), GAS (Busch Media), Spain (A Contracorriente), and Japan (Eden Ent); In The Name Of God (Gudstjänst) sold to Italy (Plaion); Zip Wire to Poland (Media4Fun), GAS (Daro); We Die Tonight (Vi Dör i Natt) to France (Swift), GAS (Busch Media); and both Dark Windows and Don’t Hang Up to Plaion for the UK.

Last Thursday’s first ever EFM Spotlight on the Nordics, featuring advance footage from, and heightened awareness of, about 10 new Nordic fiction works-in-progress, was standing room only - and an extra screening was therefore added later in the week.

“We had a great turnout, and might do it again,” said Lizette Gram Mygind, Festival Consultant at the Danish Film Institute, of an event that attracted not only buyers and sales agents, but several key festival programmers.

Looking further ahead, some Nordic attendees in Berlin expressed alarm about shifting market and political conditions. At last Sunday’s packed Film i Väst event, The Film Industry’s Got Talent? at the Hilton hotel, veteran Swedish analyst Tomas Eskilsson and others again shared some Cassandra-like musings about potential market pitfalls ahead, in particular the struggle to engage younger audiences. They weren’t the only ones in Berlin with misgivings about what the coming months might bring.

“I am worried about the attack on filmmakers and humans, and the state-sponsored censorship happening across many countries. I am concerned about the dissolution of geographical boundaries and how that will jeopardise proper distribution and funding, including removals of distribution windows. I am concerned when TV channels and streamers are not supporting their local distributors and independents,” warned LevelK’s Klint.

In the short term, though, at the festival itself, Nordic attendees have been choosing to look on the bright side.