21/05/2023 - CANNES 2023: Fanny Ovesen, John Skoog and Magnus von Horn have also been revealed to be preparing new works, some of them involving lots of stolen Danish money

Director Anders Thomas Jensen (© Anders Overgaard)

A promising batch of high-end projects was unveiled at the Film i Väst co-production presentation at Cannes, held last Friday as part of the Marché du Film, with veteran contenders rubbing shoulders with newcomers. From Denmark and Zentropa comes Anders Thomas Jensen, ticking off his first quarter of a century as a prolific screenwriter for the likes of Susanne Bier and Lone Scherfig, as well as for movies under his own direction (Flickering Lights, Riders of Justice [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anders Thomas Jensen
film profile] and the Oscar-winning short Election Night). Back to Reality deals with a bank robber, his distraught brother and some hidden loot, and will start shooting in Sweden in 2024. As for the casting, “I know who I want,” said the secretive director, known to never make a film without Mads Mikkelsen in a lead role.

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At Zentropa again, and again dealing with stolen money, preparations for The Quiet Ones by Frederik Louis Hviid (Shorta [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anders Ølholm and Frederik …
film profile]) are well under way. The film is a detailed take on the grandest heist on Danish soil, committed in 2008 and involving some €10 million. “I followed the news when it happened and immediately felt that one day, I would be making a movie about it – and now’s the time,” said Hviid. Committed cast members include Gustav Dyekjær Giese, Reda Kateb and Amanda Collin, and shooting starts in September.

Also starting his shoot this autumn is Sweden’s Magnus von Horn (The Here After [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Magnus von Horn
film profile], Sweat [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Magnus von Horn
film profile]), whose The Girl with the Neddle (working title: The Little Seamstress) stars Trine Dyrholm and Vic Carmen Sonne. The movie is a free interpretation of the story of the notorious Danish “angel maker” Dagmar Overbye, who murdered dozens of infants in Copenhagen in the 1910s and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1921. Nordisk Film Creative Alliance will produce, and von Horn promises “an almost fairy tale-like film in black and white with possible shades of Hans Christian Andersen”. Yet another black-and-white (real 35mm) feature, again based on an authentic background, is Redoubt by John Skoog (Ridge [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), about a rural recluse, Karl-Göran Persson, spending four decades of his life fortifying his house against the red threat of the USSR. For the lead, Skoog has managed to get France’s own Denis Lavant, who will bring both Beckett and Buster Keaton into the mix as well as his parrot-perfect Swedish. “His accent fits perfectly with Karl-Göran’s Southern Swedish one,” noted Skoog, who thinks this one will be big in France. The main producer is Plattform, with shooting starting this summer.

Last but not least, Laura, the much-anticipated first feature by Norwegian-based Swede Fanny Ovesen, who caused quite a buzz already with her graduation film, She-Pack, is the story of two girls interrailing their way across Europe. The care-free adventure takes a dark turn when one of them finds a naked man by her side on the couch but has no memory of the night before. The multinational co-production has Marie Kjellson, of Kjellson & Wik, on board as the main producer and will be shot this summer. In all, eight projects were presented, with several aiming for a premiere at a future edition of Cannes.

More info on all of the projects can be found here.