The comedy Northern Comfort reunites a stellar international cast consisting of Lydia Leonard (Ten Percent, The Crown), Timothy Spall (Mr Turner), Sverrir Gudnason (Falling, Borg vs McEnroe), Simon Manyonda (Pennyworth), Ella Rumpf (Raw), and Rob Delaney (Catastrophe).

The story penned by Sigurdsson, together with Halldor Laxness Halldorsson (Ordinary People) and Tobias Munthe tells of a group of people who take part in an unusual course to master a fear of flying. The course’s final challenge is to experience a flight from London to Iceland, which ends up being a horrendous ordeal. Lost in Iceland, freezing and terrified, the group must find a way to overcome their fears.

The film is produced by Grimar Jónsson of Iceland’s Netop Film, in co-production with Mike Goodridge of the UK’s Good Chaos and Sol Bondy and Fred Burle of Germany’s One Two Films, with support among others from Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Speaking about his experience on this international co-production, Jónsson said “It was a learning curve, especially in the casting process. Ultimately, we were extremely fortunate as every single actor of our assembled cast turned out to be wonderfully talented human beings, and we all enjoyed the shoot very much!”.

Jónsson said he is thrilled to launch Northern Comfort at SXSW. “The festival is huge, it's renowned, and from what I hear it's the hip and cool place to premiere your film in the US. I can't wait to get there and watch the film for the first time with the audience.”

The film is due to open early fall in Iceland and later on in the co-production territories.

Paris-based Charades handles global sales.

Austin Texas’ SXSW runs March 10-18, 2023.