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TORONTO 2016 Market / Nordic countries

TrustNordisk heads to Toronto with Pyromaniac and The Commune

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- LevelK is also ready with three Nordic discoveries: Rasmus Heisterberg's In the Blood, Izer Aliu's Hunting Flies and Amanda Kernell's Sameblod

TrustNordisk heads to Toronto with Pyromaniac and The Commune
Pyromaniac by Erik Skjoldbjærg

Norwegian director Erik Skjoldbjærg's Pyromaniac [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Erik Skjoldbjærg
film profile
]
, which will have its international premiere in the Contemporary World Cinema section of the Toronto International Film Festival (8-18 September), is being touted at the market by Danish international sales agency TrustNordisk.

Last month awarded an Amanda – Norway's national film prize – for Best Actress (Liv Bernhoft Osa), Pyromaniac is Skjoldbjærg's fourth selection for the showcase, after Pioneer [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(2013), Prozac Nation (2001) and Insomnia (1997). Scripted by Norwegian screenwriter Bjørn Olaf Johannessen, from Gaute Heivoll's book about a real-life 1978 police case, it portrays an arsonist who terrorises a small community. He is no stranger, though – he is the son of the chief of the fire brigade.

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TrustNordisk is also representing Danish Dogme director Thomas Vinterberg's The Commune [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
film profile
]
, which is getting a Special Presentation at Toronto (after another six festivals) and was inspired by his colourful childhood in an academic commune north of Copenhagen. Trine Dyrholm and Ulrich Thomsen star in this picture of friendship, love, family and community life under one roof in mid-1970s Denmark, which earned Dyrholm a Silver Bear for Best Actress at this year's Berlinale.

Danish international sales boutique LevelK will arrive at Toronto with five entries in the Discovery section, presenting first films by up-and-coming directors with important messages to convey. Swedish director Amanda Kernell's Venice entry Sameblod [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Amanda Kernell
interview: Lars Lindstrom
film profile
]
follows a 14-year-old Sami reindeer-breeding girl (Lene Cecilia Sparrok) who is looking for a better life – at her boarding school, she is exposed to racism and biology examinations, so she has to break all ties with her family and her culture and become someone else.

LevelK is also selling Norwegian director Izer Aliu's Hunting Flies [+see also:
trailer
interview: Izer Aliu
film profile
]
, his feature debut, shot at a school in Macedonia, where an idealistic teacher has lost his job because a new political party has taken over government. Meanwhile, Danish writer Rasmus Heisterberg's In the Blood [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elliott Crosset Hove
interview: Rasmus Heisterberg
film profile
]
 – his first film as a director, after having written several award-winning scripts – portrays a medical student in Copenhagen (Kristoffer Bech), who is not quite ready to leave his happy-go-lucky days behind.

Finnish-Swedish international distributor The Yellow Affair will launch two new Swedish productions at Toronto: Swedish writer-director Wiktor Ericsson's first feature, Strawberry Days [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, and Swedish director Maria Hulterstam and Argentinian filmmaker Cecilia Actis' Snip, Snap, Snut. Staszek Cywka and Nelly Axelsson star in Ericsson's love story between a Polish worker and a Swedish farmer's daughter, amidst rising tensions and violence between Swedish strawberry farmers and Polish labourers, while Snip, Snap, Snut is a 10 x 4-minute television series for children.

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