Ruben Öslund, Zaida Bergroth, Kajsa Næss receive Eurimages grants

The Palme d’or winning director’s first foray into English language film, is set to start filming on February 9, 2020 at Film i Väst’s Trollhättan Studios.

Set against the backdrop of the glamorous fashion world and jet set society, Triangle of Sadness focuses on top models Carl and Yaya as they join a Caribbean cruise. When the Marxist captain sets out to punish his privileged passengers by staging a grand dinner during a violent storm, provoking sea sickness and food poisoning, the cruise is transformed into a nightmare metaphor for the end of Western civilisation. In the aftermath, a number of passengers are washed up on a deserted island. In the struggle for survival, the social hierarchies are turned upside down and a middle-aged Filipino maid has the upper hand. Casting is still underway.

The €10m film is produced by Erik Hemmendorff of Plattform Production, in co-production with Philippe Bober’s Essential Film Production in Germany and Société Parisienne de Production in France, Film i Väst, SVT, Arte/ZDF, with support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond and the Swedish Film Institute among others.

Östlund and Hemmendorff’s long-time partner Bober will handle world sales via Coproduction Office and SF Studios the domestic release.

The Norwegian animated film Titina by Kajsa Næss was granted €460,000 from the Council of Europe’s co-production fund Eurimages. The €7.4m film is produced by Lise Fearnley and Tonje Skar Reiersen of Norway’s Mikrofilm (academy-award winning for the animated short The Danish Poet), in co-production with Belgium’s Vivi Film, support among others from the Norwegian Film Institute and Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

The ambitious animated film will be based on drawings from cartoonist Siri Dokken and a script by Per Schreiner (The Bothersome Man, Struggle for Life). Titina is a Polar epic about the mysterious death of legendary explorer Roald Amundsen, the sheer disgrace of Umberto Nobile, and about Titina: the first – and last – fox terrier on the North Pole. The expected premiere is set for the fall 2021. 

The Finnish film Tove by acclaimed director Zaida Bergroth (The Good Son, Maria’s Paradise) was granted €163,000 from Eurimages. The film is produced by Andrea Reuter and Aleksi Bardy of Helsinki filmi, in co-production with Stellar Film in Estonia and  Anagram Sweden, support among others from Nordisk Film & TV Fond. Filming starts on January 9, 2020 and the premiere via Nordisk Film is set for the fall 2020.  

Tove is based on a screenplay by Finnish actor and writer Eeva Putro. It focuses on legendary Finnish author Tove Jansson’s formative years in post-war Helsinki, her fight for recognition for her art and the passionate bisexual love affair that was mirrored in the internationally beloved Moomin books. The film will be shot in Tove’s native language Swedish and filmed on location in Helsinki and other places that were central to her life and art.