Jacobsen to stage “Norway’s first real political thriller”
- The Norwegian Film Institute is supporting Stig Svendsen’s King’s Bay, from John M Jacobsen’s Filmkameratene
At the recent Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund, veteran Norwegian producer John M Jacobsen won Best Film Amandas – Norway’s national film prize – for his two latest productions: Hallvard Bræin’s Børning [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Best Norwegian Film) and Grethe Bøe-Waal’s Operation Arctic [+see also:
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film profile] (Best Norwegian Children’s Film).
Now, Jacobsen – well known for making his point that “in our company, Filmkameratene, we don’t waste our time on films that we don’t believe will sell at least 100,000 tickets” – has announced that he will back Norwegian director Stig Svendsen’s King’s Bay, “the first real political thriller made in Norway”, which the Norwegian Film Institute has supported to the tune of €0.8 million.
On 5 November 1962, 21 workers were killed in an explosion in the Norwegian mines at Kings Bay, Svalbard, in the Arctic; in June 1963, a public commission investigating the accident criticised the security measures in the mines, which later forced the Social Democratic government to resign, thus making way for the first right-wing ruling party in Norway.
“Against the backdrop of the increasing focus on the Arctic and the superpowers’ game of future resources, King’s Bay is based on this historical event during the Cold War, the impact it had then – and still has in the current situation. And what if it wasn’t an accident after all?” asked Jacobsen, who will shoot the film in January-February 2016, for an SF Norway premiere in January 2017.
The Norwegian Film Institute has also chipped in for the production of three family films: Norwegian directors Katarina Launing’s Cinderella, a new version of Czech director Václav Vorlícek’s 1973 classic Three Wishes for Cinderella; Rasmus A Sivertsen’s Moonlight in Pinchcliffe [+see also:
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interview: Rasmus A Sivertsen
film profile], rounding off the fully animated Solan & Ludvig [+see also:
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interview: Rasmus A. Sivertsen
film profile] trilogy; and Åsleik Engmark’s Twigson, the Police and the Christmas Present That Disappeared, the fourth film about Norwegian author Anne-Cath Vestly’s character.
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