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PRODUCTION / FUNDING Iceland

Elfar Aðalsteins’ Summerlight And Then Comes The Night in the works

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- The Icelandic director’s sophomore feature is based on Jón Kalman Stefánsson’s successful novel of the same name

Elfar Aðalsteins’ Summerlight And Then Comes The Night in the works
Director Elfar Aðalsteins

Icelandic filmmaker Elfar Aðalsteins is now preparing his second feature, a drama entitled Summerlight And Then Comes The Night [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
. His directorial debut, the Icelandic-Irish-American co-production End of Sentence [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, starred John Hawkes, Logan Lerman and Sarah Bolger in the lead roles and was screened at this year’s Edinburgh Film Festival. The film revolved around a widowed man called Frank (played by Hawkes), who reluctantly embarks on a journey to honour his wife’s last wish of spreading her ashes in a remote lake in her native Ireland.

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The story of this new project, penned in its entirety by the director himself, is based on Jón Kalman Stefánsson’s 2005 novel of the same name. The enigmatic plot goes like this: the Village is brimming with stories and if you listen carefully, it might just tell you a few. Like the one about the prosperous manager who one night dreams in Latin and abandons his promising career for old books and astronomy. Or the one about the wafer-thin policeman’s son who paints the night sky and carves moorland birds. There is also the story of the open-air countryside affair that has flammable effects; or the one about the big rock that gets chiselled to dust by hand. Moreover, producer Heather Millard (Let Me Fall [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Baldvin Z
interview: Kristin Thora Haraldsdóttir
film profile
]
, Opposite Borders) disclosed to Cineuropa that production is planned to start in the Westfjords of Iceland in July 2020.

Summerlight And Then Comes The Night is produced by the director himself for Reykjavík-based outfit Berserk Films and Lilja Snorradóttir (Echo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rúnar Rúnarsson
film profile
]
, And Breathe Normally [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ísold Uggadóttir
interview: Kristin Thora Haraldsdóttir
film profile
]
), Heather Millard and Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (the TV series The Minister, XL) for Reykjavík-based firm Pegasus Pictures. Icelandic outfit Sena will handle theatrical distribution in Iceland. The production team will introduce the film to sales agents in the new year. The project also received support from the Icelandic Film Centre, the country’s main audiovisual agency. Its release is scheduled for spring/summer 2021.

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