New Anders Thomas Jensen, Frederik Louis Hviid at talent-packed Film i Väst launch

Long-time production partner to the leading regional film fund Film i Väst, Zentropa pitched two high profile features, repped internationally by TrustNordisk.

• Back to Reality (working title) written and directed by Anders Thomas Jensen (Riders of Justice, Men & Chicken) is currently in financing stage, with partners so far confirmed including the Danish Film Institute, FilmFyn, TV2, Nordisk Film Distribution, on top of co-producers Zentropa Sweden and Film i Väst. Sisse Graum Jørgensen and Sidsel Hybschmann are producing.
  
  The seasoned scriptwriter, co-credited most recently for Nikolaj Arcel’s anticipated The Bastard starring Mads Mikkelsen, is turning next to a story of brotherhood.
  
  Fresh out of jail, the bank robber Anker is on his way to collect the loot. But the only one who knows where to get it is his traumatised brother, Manfred, who has meanwhile fled into an alter ego, and now knows nothing about the money. Hoping to unlock Manfred’s memory, the brothers travel to their childhood home and start digging.
  
  “Basically it’s about forgiveness, about identity. Who we are, how we perceive each other, and tend to judge one another too quicky from a single action,” said Jensen who is currently “sitting with actors [not yet mentioned] and doing rewrites”.
  
  The film will be shot mostly in Sweden from early 2024.
  
  Quizzed by Film i Väst’s Head of Production Kristina Börjeson about his taste in film, Jensen said : “I don’t watch that many movies - I have four kids who watch stuff on Youtube a lot, but one of my all-time favourite is The Apartment [by Billy Wilder] and recently I watched Parasite [by Bong Joon Ho] and absolutely loved it!”
  

• Zentropa’s The Quiet Ones is the sophomore feature by Frederik Louis Hviid (Shorta), with an A-list cast including Amanda Collin (A Horrible Woman, The Bastard), Gustav Dyekjær Giese (Northwest, Riders of Justice) and French actor Reda Kateb (Zero Dark Thirty, A Prophet). Filming is due to start in September.
  
  The suspense drama co-written by Hviid with Anders Frithiof (A Fortunate Man, Follow the Money) is loosely based on Denmark’s most notorious heist that happened in 2008. It turns on a group of tenacious and uncompromising robbers who all share the same ambition: to succeed with the impossible, despite major obstacles.
  
  During the press launch, Hviid who confessed having a fascination for the “anarchy of crimes” said the feature is “about the men who devote their life to crime and those that it affects”. The director said he obtained inside information from one of the real-life heist organisers who helped him “get the facts straight and the filmmaking team understand the robbers’ personal motives.”
  
  The high quality film produced by Kasper Dissing, is a co-production with Zentropa Sweden, and Titane’s French production company Kazak Productions, with support from the Danish Film Institute, Canal+, Cine+, DR, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, The Swedish Film Institute, & The MEDIA Programme. Nordisk Film will handle the Nordic release and KMBO the French release.
  

Other films that were launched at the Film i Väst gathered were:

• Redoubt by John Skoog (Ridge) starring Denis Lavant, produced by Ruben Östlund’s producer Erik Hemmendorff of Plattform Produktion. See our story: Denmark’s Paloma Prods on co-producing with Triangle of Sadness partners - and new film slate
• the musical Iza & Alice, feature debut of series specialist by Emma Bucht (Love & Anarchy) starring Hedda Stiernstedt (The Restaurant) and Josefin Asplund (Top Dog), produced by Sweden’s Stella Nova.
• the period crime The Little Seamstress by Magnus von Horn, starring Trine Dyrholm and Vic Carmen Sonne - See our story: Trine Dyrhom, Vic Carmen Sonne join Magnus von Horn’s The Little Seamstress.
• Laura, feature debut of former Nordic Talents winner Fanny Ovesen, starring newcomers Embla Ingelman-Sundberg, Aviva Wrede (Hashtag) and French actor Oscar Leasage (Marie-Antoinette).
  
  The drama tells of a 19-year-old girl, on a couch-surfing trip through Europe, who wakes up having had sex with a stranger. But she remembers nothing. This becomes the starting point for a liberating but also destructive exploration of Laura's own boundaries. Filming is due to start this summer.

• Carousel, horror film by Simon Sandquist (Oscar-nominated for the short film Victor) starring Omar Rudberg (Young Royals) and Wilma Lidén (A Class Apart). The genre feature is produced by David Ovsepian and Filip Hammarström for Scandinavian Content Group.
  

• The high-end TV series Stenbeck produced by FLX for SVT - see our story Jakob Oftebro to play media magnate Jan Stenbeck for FLX and SVT
  

• The documentary Ultras by Ragnild Ekner, produced by Story’s Tobias Janson, expected to premiere for the European football cup in 2024.