New Nordic Films closes in upbeat mood with Best Project awarded to The Love Pill

A healthy wind of optimism flew over Haugesund’s physical festival and market New Nordic Films this week, as a plethora of standout projects in development from rising voices, often inspired by personal stories, gave out messages of love and tolerance.

The Love Pill for instance, which won Best Project among 17 entries at the Nordic Co-Production Market, is a Swedish comedy about queer Arabs, which "needs to be told”, said Iraqi-Swedish debutant Naures Sager, who pitched the project with his partner, producer Michael Detlef from the newly founded The Uneven company. “Everything is unbalanced in society-it’s time to get even!" claimed Sager. The very low budget feature centres on Zozo and Malik who are in for a rough ride, being queer and Arabs, but perhaps the ‘love pill’ will help them admit their mutual love.

So far the project has received support from Film i Skåne and should be filmed in 2023 as part of the Swedish Film Institute’s Moving Sweden scheme.

Other buzzed about projects at the Co-production Market include Glass Disease by first time director Elina Sahlin (Makeriet, Sweden) about youth drug abuse in a rural community, Agnes & the Ocean (BeoStarling, Denmark), a genre-bending family tale by Rasmus Kloster Bro (Cutterhead) and the WW2 drama comedy The Swedish Connection (Way Feature Films) by Oscar nominated Marcus A. Olsson and Therese Ahlbeck.

Three former Nordic Talents attendees had successful pitches:

• The Braid by Angelika Abramovitch (Nordic Talents Special Mention 2021) is the story of an 11-year-old girl who fears her mentally-ill mum is possessed by ‘the mara’, a creature from Swedish folklore, while visiting her in the deep woods of Dalarna. The €2.8m project is produced by Cinenic in Sweden.

• The Blowfish by Elin Övergaard (Cannes competition nominated in 2019) follows the young girl La (24), stuck in a metro train due to a terrorist attack. La who has suicidal thoughts, is forced for the first time to connect with the people around her. MostAlice Film, Sweden is producing.

• Europe by Brwa Vahabpour (Special Mention Nordic Talent 2018) is about the young Norwegian Akam of Kurdish origin, whose life is turned upside down when his uncle - smuggled into Norway from Kurdistan - comes to visit him. True Content Production Norway is producing.
  

Among the 17 works in progress, standout projects that enthused buyers and programmers take in the sci-fi UFO Sweden from the whizz Swedish Collective (co-produced by SF Studios) already pre-sold to numerous territories by REinvent,

The Finnish black comedy The Player by Teemu Nikki (It’s Alive Pictures), the Norwegian comedy about identity Listen Up! by Kaveh Tehran, and the well-crafted WW2 drama The Liberation by Oscar-nominated Anders Walter (Nordisk Film), sold by TrustNordisk.

For more information about the films and projects and to download the 2022 New Nordic Film Catalogue CLICK HERE.

Industry feedback
Commenting on New Nordic Films’ programme, genre specialist Annick Mahnert, buyer for Screen Division and head of Frontières Co-Production Market, underscored the trend towards a “more diversified” range of Nordic genre films, such as dramas with fantasy or thriller elements, rather than pure genre movies. She also pointed out that Sweden follows up on Norway, with thrillers anchored in mythology and folklore. She also welcomed the very dark Finnish comedy The Player from The Blind Man Who Did Not Want To See Titanic’s director Teemu Nikki.

“Every time I attend New Nordic Films, I make new discoveries and this year several projects have caught my eye,” she told nordicfilmandtvnews.com.

Swedish arthouse buyer Rose-Marie Strand (Folkets Bio) cited six projects at the Nordic Co-Production Market that she was keen to investigate and three work in progress. She also enjoyed watching clips from her pre-buy, the Finnish relationship drama Four Little Adults by Selma Vilhunen. “I’m a big fan of her work and have several of her films,” she said.

Strand praised the curated programme of New Nordic Films, with titles for all tastes and budgets. “There was lots of humour and playfulness in many projects,” she insisted.

Among sales agents, New Europe Film Sales’ Marcin Luczal was pleased with the volume of catchy projects open for sales at the Co-Production Market, that included two directors (Elin Övergaard and Andrias Høgenni) whose earlier short were handled by his outfit.

He also hinted at some projects partly-financed by platforms, that made it more challenging for sales companies to do their business. “That said, Haugesund is a very good place for us, as it is distant from Göteborg’s Nordic Film Market [late January]. We get different projects to scout at both markets,” he underscored.

First-time Haugesund attendee Julia Weig from Filmfest Muenchen was impressed by the personal stories at the Co-Production Market and number of war-related titles at the works in progress. “It is understandable considering the current climate” she said. Regarding New Nordic Films, she was pleased by the smooth organisation. “It’s been nice to see a festival bounce back after Covid”, she added.

FESTIVAL AWARDS
Last night, the 50^th Norwegian International Film Festival handed out another five awards:

• Erik Poppe’s The Emigrants won the ecumenical Andreas Award, handed out by the Norwegian Film Festival, Film&Kino and the newspaper Vårt Land.
• The opening film War Sailor by Gunnar Vikene won the Audience Award.
• Free Men by Óskar Kristinn Vignisson won the Next Nordic Generation Award. Vignisson attended the Nordic Talents event in 2021.
• Close by Belgium’s Lukas Dhont (distributed by Athaus in Norway) won the Critics’ Award.
• Broker by Hirokazu Koreeda (Another World Entertainment) won the Ray of Sunshine Award.​