Magnus von Horn’s third feature is headed to the Cannes Film Festival, running this year from 14-25 May. The Swedish helmer, who is best known for Sweat [+lee también:
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The picture is billed as “a harrowing, dense story based on factual events from the beginning of the 20th century”, and revolves around “a woman seeking love and a sense of morality”. The lead character is Karoline (played by Vic Carmen Sonne), a young factory worker who is struggling to survive in post-World War I Copenhagen. In her hour of need, she seeks help from a woman she has just met, called Dagmar (Trine Dyrholm). Owing to the horrific circumstances of their encounter, Karoline and Dagmar start to develop a special bond. 

Key crew members include DoP Michał Dymek, editor Agnieszka Glińska, production designer Jagna Dobesz, interior decorator Ewa Mroczkowska and costume designer Małgorzata Fudala. Besir Zeciri is also attached to the cast.

The press materials label the movie as “a fairy tale about a horrible truth” and “a story that will affect all of the viewer’s senses”. Von Horn co-wrote the script with Denmark’s Line Langebek Knudsen (I’ll Come Running).

“I always wanted to get into genre filmmaking. I wanted to tell my story in the context of horror. But the more I tried to develop a horror movie, the more drama came out,” said von Horn in a conversation with members of the Polish Film Institute, one of the film’s funding bodies. “We wanted to move a little bit away from realism and to try to build an aesthetically interesting world – not to make a copy [of Copenhagen] or [to provide a] historically correct image.”

The majority of filming took place in Poland – in Łódź, Zgierz, and the regions of Lower Silesia, Wrocław and Bystrzyca Kłodzka – with three additional shooting days in Gothenburg, Sweden.

“Copenhagen doesn’t look anything like Bystrzyca Kłodzka, but that’s our conscious decision not to make a replica of that city, but rather an image of a place from 100 years ago,” the helmer explained, adding that the team purposefully sought out places that looked the oldest and the most neglected in a “visually rich, spectacular way”.

“We wanted to make a film that could be dubbed a fairy tale or a fable from the world of the Brothers Grimm. We played around with the concept of a princess who is awaiting her saviour on a white horse, whilst shaking off her delusions and dreams,” commented producer Mariusz Włodarski.

The film was produced by Malene Blenkov for Nordisk Film Denmark and Włodarski for Lava Films (Poland), in co-production with Nordisk Film Sweden. Luiza Skrzek served as the production manager.

Other backers include the Danish Film Institute, the Polish Film Institute, the Swedish Film Institute, DR, SVT, the Nordisk Film & TV Fond and Eurimages.

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