With Terribly Happy running for a Crystal Globe, the Danish filmmaker Henrik Ruben Genz (photo) will be spearheading the Nordic delegation present en force this year at the 43rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (July 4-12), with almost 20 films in selection.
Karlovy Vary has been a good luck festival for Nordic films over the last decade, bringing top awards to established and rising Nordic filmmakers, from Lukas Moodysson’s Fucking Åmal, Special Jury Prize winner in 1999, to last year’s Crystal Award to Baltasar Kormákur’s Jar City, and Best Director Award to Bård Breien (The Art of Negative Thinking). Genz himself won two awards in Karlovy Vary 2005 for Chinaman (Ecumenical and FIPRESCI Awards).

The director is back this year with a drama about a police officer who leaves his dodgy past in the big city to start a new life in the countryside. The film is produced by Fine & Mellow with co-financing from DR, Nordisk Film, support from the Danish Film Institute and Nordisk Film & TV Fond. The Danish premiere through Nordisk Film is set for October 24, and world sales are handled by TrustNordisk.

Two Swedish minority co-productions are also running for the Crystal Globe: The Hungarian film The Investigator, co-produced by Anagram Production, and the Indonesian film The Photograph.

The documentary competition programme presided over by the Jørgen Leth, has selected two Nordic titles: Everything is Relative by the Danish Mikala Krogh, produced by Tju-Bang Film, and the minority Finnish co-production Lost World by the Hungarian Nemes Gyula, co-produced by YLE.

The East of the West competition programme will feature 15 films, including I Was Here by Estonian filmmaker Rene Vilbre, co-produced by Finland’s Helsinki Filmi. As for Norway’s The Man Who Loved Yngve, the film will have a chance to win an award from the Forum of Independents sidebar.

‘Open Eyes’ featuring the Best of Cannes, will screen Ruben Östlund’s Involutary and Bent Hamer’s O’Horten, ‘Another View’ displaying innovative works, has selected the Icelandic Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela, the Danish Go with Peace Jamil, and the Swedish films Let the Right One In and One Eye Red.

Pernille Fischer Christensen’s Dancers will screen at the ‘Horizon’, and Finland’s graduation film Lilli by Oliwia Tonteri at the ‘Fresh Selection’. Another section promoting up and coming European filmmakers: Variety Critics Choice: Europe Now!, will showcase Natasha Arthy’s Fighter and Mani Maserrat Agah’s Ciao Bella.