The Berlin-based sales company has picked up Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir’s debut feature The Swan produced by Iceland’s Vintage Pictures.

A graduate from Columbia University in the US, writer/director Hjörleifsdóttirh has toured numerous festivals with her short films Love Story and You & Me, both produced by Vintage Pictures. Her feature length debut The Swan is a coming of age story about 9 year-old Sól, who is sent to the countryside one summer to work and to mature, but she soon finds herself deeply entangled in a drama she can hardly grasp.

The Swan produced by Birgitta Björnsdóttir and Hlín Jóhannesdóttir of Vintage Pictures, is the first ever Icelandic co-production with Estonia (Kopli Kinokompanii), involving Germany as well (Jouna Film). Following its world in Toronto, the film will open in Iceland in January 2018 via Sena Distribution.

Björnsdóttir said her company has two other projects with Hjörleifsdóttirh: the adaptation of Bergsveinn Birgisson’s best-selling novel A Reply to Helga’s Letter (2010), nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize and the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize, and an English language feature project.

Three other Nordic films were selected for Toronto’s Discovery section and all screened at Haugesund’s New Nordic Films market.

  • Winter Brothers by Hlynur Pálmason, which premiered successful in Locarno. picking up four awards. The co-production between Denmark’s Masterplan Pictures and Iceland’s Join Motion Pictures is represented by New Europe Film Sales. 
  • Ravens by Swedish photographer-turned director Jens Assur is a family drama/thriller set in 1070s rural Sweden starring Reine Brynolfsson, Maria Heiskanen and Peter Dalle. The film produced by Film & Art Affairs, will also screen at San Sebastian’s New Directors section. TriArt will release it in Sweden on October 13.
  • Valley of Shadows is directed by Norway’s Jonas Matzow Gulbrandsen for Film Farm Production. The film centres on a 6 year-old boy who lives with his mother in a mountainous small village. After a tragic event, the boy ventures in the menacing forest, where fantasy and reality are blurred.
    Celluloid Dreams handles sales on Ravens and Valley of Shadows. 

Another ten Nordic films have been selected for the 42nd Toronto International Film Festival, set to open on September 7 with Janus Metz’s Borg/McEnroe.

Watch out for Toronto Nordic programmer Steve Gravestock ‘s exclusive overview of his 2017 Nordic selection published on September 5.