Norway continues to up its game on the international market and is gradually nearing its goal of becoming a film leader in the Nordic region.
Half a dozen feature projects currently filming or set to roll within the next three months have name directors behind the camera such as Hans Petter Moland, Bent Hamer, Liv Ullmann and A talents attached including Oscar-nominated Jessica Chastain (pictured), Colin Farrell, Bruno Ganz, August Diehl. The country's international ambitions are backed by comfortable public coin.
On her way to Berlin Stine Helgeland, Head of the Norwegian Film Institute's International Relations and Promotion stressed that Norway's signing of the European Convention on Cinematographic Coproduction in 2009 has facilitated and stimulated co-productions while the NFI has upped its budget both for co-productions (from €1.5m in 2012 to €2.1m in 2013) and international sales and promotion (€1.5 million in 2013).
The most recent slate of films that received nearly €6m support from the NFI have clear international potential. Four of them are European co-productions with budgets ranging between €3-4 million. Heading the slate is Liv Ullmann's Miss Julie starring Jessica Chastain, (pictured here with Golden Globe from Zero Dark Thirty), Colin Farrell and Samantha Morton. The adaptation of August Strindberg's celebrated play is produced by Maipo's Synnøve Hørsdal with France's Senorita and the UK's Apocalypse. Filming will start on April 2, 2013. Nordisk Film will release it in Norway in the autumn 2014.
Bent Hamer is expected to announce the casting for his new film 1001 Grams within the next few weeks. The co-production between Hamer's Bulbul Film, Germany's Pandora Film and France's Slot Machine also received backing from Nordisk Film & TV Fond and filming will start on May 1st, 2013. Les Films du Losange that picked up international rights (outside Germany and Scandinavia) is launching pre-sales in Berlin. "Our company has a long tradition of handling auteur films and we are proud to add Hamer to our roster. He has a large international fan base", noted sales agent Agathe Valentin.
Dirk Ohm - The Illusionist That Disappeared, another tripartite European co-production between Norway (Mer Film), Sweden (Migma Film) and Germany (Neue Road Movie) has rising German star actor August Diehl (Inglorious Basterds and upcoming Night Train to Lisbon) in the lead, alongside Denmark's Sara Hjort, Norway's Jørgen Langhelle, Sweden's Alexandra Rapaport and Iceland's Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson. The feature debut of the Palme d'or winner Bobbie Peers (for his short Sniffer) is based on a script by NHK Sundance Filmmaker Award winner Bjørn Olaf Johannessen. Filming started this week and SF Norge will release it domestically in September 2014.
Her er Arnold (Here's Harold) based on the book Saganatt by Frode Grytten, produced by Norway's Mer Film with Sweden's Migma Film is a road movie about the bankrupt furniture store manager Harold Lunde, who drives to Sweden to kidnap IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad. Gunnar Vikene (Trigger, Vegas) started filming on Tuesday. SF Norge will release it in February 2014.
Another Norwegian feature with international potential - backed earlier by the NFI - started principal photography on Monday: Hans Petter Moland's The Prize Idiot produced by Paradox with Zentropa's Danish and Swedish production arms. The story of a family man who provokes a showdown between the Albanian mafia and drug dealers in Eastern Norway was written by Kim Fupz Aakeson (A Somewhat Gentle Man). The stellar cast comprises Pål Sverre Hagen, Bruno Ganz and Peter Andersson.