The period drama The Kiss freely inspired by Stefan Zweig’s novel ‘Beware of Pity’, is the latest title from Oscar and Palme d’or winning director Bille August, handled by the international sales and aggregation outfit LevelK.

The strong ensemble cast lead by Esben Smed (A Fortunate Man, Daniel) includes Clara Rosager (The Rain, Before the Frost), David Dencik (No Time To Die, The Chestnut Man), Lars Mikkelsen (Borgen, Ride Upon the Storm) and Rosalinde Mynster (Persona Non Grata, Darkness-Those who Kill).

Set in Denmark in 1913, the story follows Anton, a noble and conscientious young man, whose top priority is to complete his training as a cavalry officer. During a training session he orders his platoon to help Baron von Løvenskjold and finds himself invited to a ball at the castle where he meets the Baron’s beautiful daughter Edith who has been in an accident and ended up in a wheelchair. Anton feels a growing compassion towards Edith, but he can’t figure out whether his feelings are of pity or true love. In his attempt at doing the right thing, he gets ever more entangled in promises, lies, and responsibility towards the Løvenskjold family and to Edith.

“The unique story exposes some unknown aspects of the human psyche and touches upon a series of eternal moral issues, framed in a moving intimate narrative, about the encounter of two broken young people,” said August.

The film is produced by Thomas Heinesen for Nordisk Film Production and Lars Sylvest (Robots, Cliffhanger), with Robert Croucher serving as exec producer. Co-financiers include Film Fyn, the Danish Film Institute, the Norwegian Film Institute, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, YouSee, Clausen Group, on top of Hungarian tax rebates.

Filming between Hungary and Fyn island in Denmark just wrapped.

LevelK will be pitching the project to buyers at this week’s online American Film Market, where the company has a strong slate including the Danish animated film Checkered Ninja 2 (top selling film in Denmark with over 906,000 admissions), Tea Lindeburg’s acclaimed debut As in Heaven, Spanish chiller The Passenger, Belgian Spaceboy, Belgium/Latvian Samuel’s Travels, Iranian drama Zalava, US/Cambodian Karmalink and Swiss/Macedonian/Albanian/Kosovo copro Hive.