Cannes: Star-packed Convoy, The Bastard lead TrustNordisk’s slate

Headlining TrustNordisk’s Cannes line up is the latest Norwegian pick up Convoy (working title) with a stellar Scandinavian cast including Tobias Santelmann (Exit, Atlantic Crossing), Anders Baasmo (Børning, The King’s Choice), newcomer Heidi Ruud Ellingsen, Adam Lundgren (The Restaurant), Kristian Repshus (Kids in Crime), Jon Ranes (Pørni), Olav Waastad (Afterglow), Jakob Fort (Afterglow) and Fredrik Stenberg D-S (Munch, Sick Of Myself) among others.

The €6m WW2 naval drama directed by Henrik M. Dahlsbakken (Munch) for genre-specialists Fantefilm (The Wave, The Quake), is finalising its shoot.

The story co-written by Christian Siebenherz, Lars Gudmestad and Harald Rosenløw Eeg is based on true events, that unfolded in 1942. Civilian war sailors from around the world are part of a convoy carrying war supplies from Iceland to Murmank and Archangel and have to fight for their lives against German air and naval forces and Arctic temperatures.

Nordisk Film will release it in Norway on December 25, 2023.

Convoy is the latest epic naval drama from Norway after Gunnar Wikene’s mega-hit War Sailor. TrustNordisk’s CEO Susan Wendt said she believes the action-packed and gripping story will appeal both to festivals and distributors.

TrustNordisk will also continue pre-selling in Cannes the highly-anticipated Danish historical drama The Bastard by Nikolaj Arcel, starring Mads Mikkelsen, Amanda Collin and Gustav Lindh. First clips from the Zentropa production will be unveiled to the 40+ buyers who have pre-bought the feature and new potential buyers

New scenes from the Norwegian chiller Handling the Undead by Thea Hvistendahl, based on Let the Right One In’s author John Ajvide Lindqvist will also be shown as part of TrustNordisk’s Cannes show-reel. The €4.2m film in post-production stars Cannes’ 2021 Best Actress winner Renate Reinsve.

Two films in post-production from seasoned Danish directors will also be offered for pre-sales: Ole Christian Madsen’s crime drama Boundless, based on Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Department Q novel, and Ole Bornedal’s Nightwatch-Demons are Forever starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

TrustNordisk will also present:

• Darkland: The Return starring Dar Salim, which is dominating the top 10 Denmark for the 3^rd consecutive week, will screen May 19 at Olympia 5, at 14.15.
• The suspense drama Birthday Girl starring Trine Dyrholm and the WW2 drama Before it Ends by Anders Walter will be shown at closed market screenings.

Commenting on her expectations for Cannes, Wendt said: ”Our focus in Cannes apart from making sure that high quality content is being spread to every angle of the world, will also be to get a feel of the state of the industry-what is in demand, which kind of films are the different buyers looking for and when are they willing to commit. These things change constantly, and it is important to keep being in sync with the industry,” she observed.

TrustNordisk will be based in Cannes at 10 rue Buttura.