About anti-nationalism, anti-conformism, and Anti-Christ. One year after his alliance with Nordisk Film, Zentropa's Peter Aalbæk Jensen (photo) has actively pushed the boundaries of his Danish production empire across the European continent. The Boss of it all speaks to nordiskfilmogtvfond.com a few days before the 2009 Berlinale where three of his films are vying for the Golden Bear.
You have a record three feature films in competition in Berlin. Happy?
It feels great, even more so because we're at the Berlinale with a Swedish film (Mammoth), a Danish film (Little Soldier) and a German film (Storm), so it proves that our aim of making a North European mini-studio has matched our expectations.
Our new motto is: ‘fuck nationalism'! It means that we don't care if we make a Danish film, a Norwegian film or a German film. We're just proud to work with European talents.
Could you describe Zentropa today: its structure, and strategy? The great era of the Dogma movement and of the early Lars von Trier films were in a way our graduation years. We learnt about international relations, international sales, and the fun of co-producing with other countries. We're still happy to work with the best talent in Denmark but also believe that we've been given so much from bigger European countries like France, Germany, the UK, that it's now pay back time for us. We want to help talents in those territories. This means that we have small Zentropa autonomous offices in some European territories (no more than two persons per office) that give local producers and directors access to local facilities and/or financing. For instance Hans-Christian Schmid's Storm was co-produced by Zentropa Berlin that facilitated its financing through our branches in Berlin, Cologne, Trollhättan in Sweden and Amsterdam. The same goes with Lukas Moodysson's Mammoth. We're partners in the film through our Copenhagen, Trollhättan and Berlin offices. On top of that, we take care of international sales for those films and supply them with shooting and post-production facilities.
You just opened a branch in Norway. What's next?
We just opened an office in Poland. We have great expectations from this new branch as we want to use it as a centre for all Eastern European co-productions. Polish filmmaker/producer Malgo?ka Szumowska is running the office. She had a great success last year with 33 Scenes from Life and is now in development with a new film, to be co-produced with our French representative Marianne Slot (Slot Machine). This is an example of how our different outfits now work independently, without going through our Copenhagen headquarters. If each office finds the financing for a film, then it automatically gets the greenlight. What is important is that all managers of the Zentropa branches have shares in the mother company, which means they all work with the same goal.
Your international growth is a logical step as past Zentropa productions have often done better outside Denmark...
Denmark has obviously a small population of only 5 million people. We have great talents and going international is a way to support their career. For instance we've been involved in all Lukas Moodysson's films, from his first €1m Fucking Åmål to his €10m Mammoth, and he is still with the same ‘family'.
If in Denmark, we haven't been able to meet the audience with our latest Danish films, it means that we, at Zentropa, must make changes. I don't blame the audience because they have supported us in the last decade. So we must make sure we keep improving our slate.
Has your teaming up with Nordisk Film, changed your rebellious nature and are you worried about their change in leadership?
No, no. This is called Life. It's good to stir the pot now and then. Teaming up with Nordisk has been a great experience as we've joined forced in several activities in order to make a strong unit for film production in Northern Europe.
Over the last few years, you've launched a series of innovative ideas within Denmark (Film Fabriken) in Europe (Advance Party) or on the web (Dogma Mobile). How successful are they?
We've had many ideas over the last 20 years and some of them have died quickly, while others such as Dogma have made an impact. We always try to be as innovative as possible and often say: if you aim for the sun you might be able to reach for the moon!
To talk more specifically about Advance Party, we're currently developing six films together with Sigma in Scotland and the Irish Film Board. My idea is to try to make a north Atlantic alliance with Scotland and Ireland.
Tell us about some of your feature films to come, Antichrist, to start with...
Regarding Antichrist, we're moving fast with the post-production and want to present it at Cannes. If they don't like it, we'll be weeping a lot! What's sure is that Lars von Trier is back on track, and from what I've seen, the film is one of his very best movies.
We're also moving more into TV series. We're currently working on a major Scandinavian TV series, Blekingegadebanden. Then we'll work with Danish directors Per Fly and Susanne Bier.
How do you see Zentropa in five years, in the light of the current world financial crisis?
We'll be bankrupt or conquering the world! As we work in the film business, we're used to being in a financial crisis, so what's happening now is not such a big deal.