Jens Assur to make a countryside thriller
- Ravens will be the feature debut by Assur, whose shorts have won him several prizes
Swedish director Jens Assur, whose shorts – especially Killing the Chickens to Scare the Monkeys (2011) – have garnered him nine international awards, is preparing his first feature, Ravens [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jens Assur
film profile], a thriller set in the Swedish countryside.
The film follows a farmer, Agne, who is troubled by the hard work on the farm, but also by a sense that someone wants to harm his family. His wish is for his eldest son, Klas, to take over the farm, but he has – in his longing for freedom – found an escape in his keen interest in birds. When the external menaces increase, he faces the choice of staying or running away.
Assur wrote the script, based on Swedish author Tomas Bannerhed's award-winning novel, and the Swedish Film Institute will support the project, which will be staged by Jan Marnell and Tom Persson for Film and Art Affairs II. Ravens will be premiered next year.
The institute will also back Danish director Peter Schønau Fog's You Disappear [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Peter Schønau Fog
film profile], which is about to wrap its Danish-Majorcan-Swedish shooting schedule, to be readied for a February 2017 release. The Christian Jungersen adaptation, starring Sweden's Michael Nyqvist with Denmark's Trine Dyrholm and Nikolaj Lie Kaas, is being produced by Louise Vesth for Zentropa Entertainments.
Along with seven shorts, the institute has finally chipped in for Swedish director Fijona Jonuzi's new project, The Greatest, a 60-minute drama and her longest to date, after three shorter films. It depicts an actor and a director who have decided to create a one-man show together, but two weeks before the premiere, they still do not have any material. Scripted by Jonuzi, Eva Johansson and Louise Löwenberg, for Johansson and Löwenberg to play the leads, it will be produced by Erik Hemmendorff for Plattform.
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