The Fund celebrates a record five films selected at Sundance

The five films will all receive their world premiere at the major independent US Sundance Film Festival unspooling this year in a hybrid form due to Covid-19, from January 28-February 3, 2021.

Two of them-the Swedish film Pleasure by debut director Ninja Thyberg, and the Danish animated documentary Flee by Jonas Poher Rasmussen received the prestigious Cannes Label in June.

Commenting on the record four documentary films backed by the Fund set to compete at Sundance, Karolina Lidin, Nordisk Film & TV Fond’s Senior Advisor Documentary says: “Having four Nordic documentaries supported by the Fund at Sundance’s prestigious World Cinema Documentary Competition is terrific news. What makes us especially proud is the range of their stories, voices and visions, spanning the courageous and awe-inspiring first-hand accounts of Hogir Hirori’s Sabaya, and Camilla Nielsson’s President, respectively depicting the saving of Yazidi women from Daesh captivity in Al-Hol-Syria, and the Zimbabwean election campaign of the visionary opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa; the deconstruction of a cinema icon in Kristina Lindström and Kristian Petri’s The Most Beautiful Boy in the World, and the immersive animation of the refugee experience in Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee."

Lidin continued: "2021 is already off to a flying start, which is especially auspicious for Nordisk Film & TV Fond, since we have designated next year to have a special Documentary Focus, presenting our long-anticipated Distribution Survey and launching initiatives for the Nordic Documentary Community. Sundance reminds us that Nordic documentaries are as ambitious, vibrant and relevant as ever-so much the more important that we don't rest on our laurels but keep challenging and reinventing ourselves together.”

Here under are details of each film:

• Flee (Denmark, France, Sweden, Norway) is screening as the opening film in the World Cinema Documentary Competition section.
  
  The animated film directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen (Searching for Bill) is produced by Final Cut for Real’s Monica Hellström and Signe Byrge Sørensen.
  
  The film tells the true story of a man’s need to confront his past in order to truly have a future. Amin arrived as an unaccompanied minor in Denmark from Afghanistan. Today, at 36, he is a successful academic and is getting married to his long-time boyfriend. A secret he has been hiding for 20 years threatens to ruin the life he has built. Cinephil handles sales.
• President (Denmark, U.S.A., Norway) by Camilla Nielsson is also produced by Final Cut for Real’s Signe Byrge Sørensen. More than six years after her multi-awarded film Democrats, which explored Zimbabwe’s making of a constitution after dictator Robert Mugabe’s 30-year reign, Nielsson offers a new study of the country’s political arena.
  
  In President, Zimbabwe is at a crossroads. The leader of the opposition MDC party, Nelson Chamisa, challenges the old guard ZANU-PF led by Emmerson Mnangagwa, known as "The Crocodile." The election tests both the ruling party and the opposition. How do they interpret principles of democracy in discourse and in practice? The film is sold worldwide by Cinephil.
• The Most Beautiful Boy in the World (Sweden) is co-directed by Kristina Lindström (Palme) and Kristian Petri (Details, Tokyo Noise) for producer Stina Gardell of Mantaray Film.
  
  The film portrays Swedish actor/musician Björn Andresen, whose life was forever changed at the age of 15 when he played Tadzio, the iconic young boy for whom Dirk Bogarde develops an obsession in Death in Venice (1971). Andresen was then proclaimed by the Italian maestro Luchino Visconti as ‘the world’s most beautiful boy’.
  
  With music playing a major part in the film, Mantaray Film has hired acclaimed musician Anna von Hauswolff for the score. Films Boutique handles sales.

• Sabaya (Sweden) is directed by Hogir Hirori (The Deminer) for his company Lolav Media and Antonio Russo’s Ginestra Film. The film centres on Mahmud, Ziyad and their group who - armed with just a mobile phone and a gun - risk their lives trying to save Yazidi women and girls being held by ISIS as Sabayas (abducted sex slaves) in the most dangerous camp in the Middle East, Al-Hol in Syria. Dogwoof Film Sales handles sales.

Meanwhile the feature film Pleasure (Sweden/Netherlands/France) is produced by Plattform Production’s co-founder Erik Hemmendorff, with Markus Waltå and Eliza Jones.

The drama centres on Bella, a young and ambitious 20-year-old who moves from her small town in Sweden to L.A. for a shot at a career in the adult film industry.

In a previous interview with us (CLICK HERE), Ninja Thyberg who studied gender studies before graduating from Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts, said she “used the porn industry as a backdrop to show women in a patriarchal society".

Commenting on her selected at Sundance she said: “I'm incredibly happy that the film has been selected for Sundance. I showed the short film of the same name there in 2014, and have longed for the feature film to live in the US where it also takes place. The positive thing about the fact that this year's festival is mostly digital, is that I get a chance to show the film to audiences in all states and I’m curious of their reactions!” The film is sold by Versatile.