REinvent adds Frederikke Aspöck’s Empire to Berlin European Film Market slate

The Danish drama Empire which screened in competition at the last Göteborg Film Festival is produced by Denmark’s Meta Film headed by Meta Louise Foldager Sørensen (The Wife, Borgen, Melancholia).

Based on a script by Anna Neye, Aspöck’s sophomore feature after Out of Bounds, it is a powerful satire about Denmark’s colonial past, set in St Croix, the Danish West Indies in 1848.

“From the very first time I spoke with Anna Neye about making an absurd drama about our Danish colonial history, I knew it was both risky and way too important and exciting not to be a part of,” said Sørensen who served as producer, together with Pernille Skydsgaard and Nina Leidersdorff.

“With Anna Neye’s script in the hands of the skilled director Frederikke Aspöck, this chapter in history is finally taken under revision, as many other countries have done before Denmark. It’s about time that a story driven by female characters of colour challenges the collective memory loss of imperialism."

Empire is due to open in Denmark April 20 via SF Studios.

The film will be featured in a REinvent Promo Reel screening at Berlin’s European Film Market (EFM) February 16.

At this week’s EFM, REinvent will also hold market screenings of Alex Herron’s chiller Dark Windows, Crazy Pictures’ sci fi UFO Sweden, Johan Storm’s thriller Shadow Island, and discuss anticipated upcoming films such as Erik Poppe’s Quisling-the Final Days, Lukas Moodysson’s Together 99, Nils Gaup’s The Riot.

On the TV side, the Norwegian romcom Out of Touch to be showcased at the Berlinale Series Market Selects will screen February 20 at the market.

The show created by Breakable Films’ co-founder Mikael Ljung launched last November on C More.

Three other shows to be delivered Q3, 2023 are part of REinvent’s EFM slate: the Danish crime thriller Oxen ordered by TV2 Denmark, ZDF and Arte, TV4/C More’s Swedish drama Evil and the recently acquired Norwegian crime drama Fatal Crossing from Shuuto Arctic creators (Outlier).