Three Nordic films receive Eurimages support

Both Defending Owen co-directed by Lukasz Konopa (Vegas) and Emil Langballe (Q’s Barbershop), and Sick of Myself by Kristoffer Borgli (Drib) were also supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Defending Owen produced by Made in Copenhagen, was granted €150,000 from the Council of Europe’s Eurimages Fund.
The film follows lawyer Krispus Ayena at the International Criminal Court in The Hague (ICC) and in Uganda, as they gather evidence, materials and witnesses to defend Dominic Ongwen, the first ex-child soldier to be indicted in the ICC for war crimes. At nine years old, he was abducted by Joseph Kony’s Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), his parents murdered, he was tortured, brainwashed and forced to kill. Ayena questions the justice system and how to deal with returning child-soldiers.

The film produced by Helle Faber and Heidi Kim Andersen, was co-produced by Germany’s Corso Film, with co-financing from DR, SVT, VGTV, ZDF (among others), support from the Danish Film Institute, DFI, Film Fyn, Germany’s NRW Creative Europe and Danida (Danish Foreign Ministry). Dogwoof Sales handles world sales.

Sick of Myself produced by Oslo Pictures, was granted €250,000. The comedy centres on a spoiled young woman who chemically induces an illness and lies her way to the top of the modelling industry. The film produced by Andrea Berentsen Ottmar and Dyveke Bjørkly Graver is being co-produced by Sweden’s Garagefilm, Film i Väst, with co-financing from NRK, Storyline, Scandinavian Film Distribution, support from the Norwegian Film Institute and Creative Europe. Filming is due to start this summer.

The Store (Butiken) produced by Lovisa Charlier of Sweden’s Tangram Film was granted €300,000. The satire-drama using a mix of puppet animation and live action, centres on single mum Eleni, manager of a low-price supermarket who exploits her workers to maximise profits. She relies on the best employee Shukri, but the latter becomes pregnant and hides her condition not to get fired. Meanwhile, two homeless women are building a camp behind the store; conflicts arise when they collect discarded food from the store’s waste. The project was selected at Cannes’ Cinefondation L’atelier in 2020.

It is being co-produced by Sweden’ s Götafilm, Fidalgo Film Production, Italy’s Indyca and Film i Väst among others.

During the 162^nd Eurimages meeting, 24 feature films received a total of €5.8 million in production support, including Kaymak by the award-winning North Macedonian director Milcho Manchevski (Before the Rain), co-produced by Denmark’s Meta Film, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s Tori and Lokita (Belgium/France) and Michel Hazanavicius’ The Most Precious of Cargoes (France/Belgium).