08/12/2015 - The Danish director has started work on his second feature, an adaptation of Jonas T Bengtsson’s award-winning novel, with Esben Smed in the lead

Six years after Danish writer-director Jacob Bitsch made his feature debut with the comedy-drama Camping (2009), he has started shooting the follow-up, Letters for Amina [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (working title Amina’s Letters), in Hamburg. The movie is being staged by Birgitte Skov for Denmark’s Toolbox Film, in co-production with Germany’s Tamtam Film.

Based on Danish author Jonas T Bengtsson’s award-winning novel, with a script by Anders Ølholm, the film centres on Janus, who has just been released from the psychiatric ward after a suicide attempt. Now he is on a mission: he must find his high-school friend Amina, whatever the cost. Her letters gave Janus faith and consolation while in hospital, but they suddenly stopped coming; he is convinced that something serious has happened to her, and he begins an investigation that leads him into the city’s shadowy streets, where anyone who knows her seems to have something to hide.

After obtaining a BA in Cinema Studies at the University of Copenhagen, Bitsch studied for two years at New York University’s Tisch School of Arts, before joining a course in directing at Prague’s FAMU Film School, and finally taking a degree in the subject at the National Film School in Copenhagen.

Bitsch, who most recently directed eight episodes of Danish channel TV2 Zulu’s Sjit Happens, has cast Danish actor Esben Smed in the lead – appearing this year in Danish director Kasper Barfoed’s Summer of ‘92 [+see also:
trailer
interview: Esben Smed
film profile], he also plays a major role in Danish pubcaster DR’s upcoming drama series Deceived/Follow the Money.

The cast of the movie, which Scanbox Entertainment will release in February 2017, also includes Lisa Carlehed, Omar Shargawi, Siir Tilif, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, Hans Henrik Clemensen and Michael Slebsager. It has been supported by the Danish Film Institute, DR and the Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein.