22/02/2007

Anders Nilsson’s three-part drama When Darkness Falls, which screened in the Berlinale’s Panorama section, was awarded the Amnesty International Film Prize worth €2,500.

The film was chosen among all those screening this year in official competition as well as the Panorama and Forum sidebars. The aim of the prize is “to draw the attention of audiences and representatives of the film industry to the theme of human rights and encourage filmmakers to tackle this topic”.

Moving away from his usual action thrillers (Zero Tolerance, Executive Protection), Swedish filmmaker Nilsson has turned towards domestic violence and Sweden’s immigrant communities in this film, which played well in Berlin according to Trust Film Sales CEO Maja Giese.

“The film is a real audience pleaser”, said Giese. “Some critics argued that one story in particular – the one about two sisters in an immigrant family acting against their family’s ‘code of honour’ –was stronger that the two others, but audiences in Berlin found the whole film very engaging and it attracted a lot of interest from key international buyers”.

A first distribution deal was sealed with Greece during the festival.

When Darkness Falls was produced by Sonet Film in association with Film i Väst, Pan Vision, Anders Nilsson Filmproduktion, the Swedish Film Institute, Multimedia Film und Fernsehen and Filmförderung Hamburg.