21/09/2011

Norwegian veteran producer John M Jacobsen’s €8.4 million Theresienstadt Requiem – the real-life story of Czech composer-conductor Raphael Schächter’s efforts to stage Verdi’s Requiem in the Nazi ghetto north of Prague during WW2 – is one of the Scandinavian projects selected for the Netherlands Production Platform in Utrecht between September 22-26.

With Scandinavia the theme of this year’s Holland Film Meeting, four of the 20 upcoming productions are from the Nordic countries, including Danish director Stefan Fjeldmark’s animated Our House, Finnish director Akseli Tuomivaara’s Korso [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Swedish director >Jens Jonsson’s Follow, Follow, Lead.

Scripted and directed by Vibeke Idsøe, the depiction of Schächter and his Requiem performance is seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old Danish boy who is sent to Theresienstadt – ostensibly a model Jewish settlement with artists from all over Europe, in fact a last stop-over before Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Theresienstadt was set up in 1940 to show the rest of the world that nothing untoward was happening to the Jews deported from their home countries, among them some of the world’s foremost singers and musicians. Of the 144,000 arrivals, 33,000 died, and 88,000 were forwarded to other extermination facilities.

Part of the Netherlands Film Festival, unspooling between September 21-30, the 24th Holland Film Meeting is focused on Trends and new models for storytelling, production, distribution and financing in Scandinavia, at seminars, roundtables, case studies and discussions moderated by Mike Goodridge and Nick Roddick.

Danish producer Sven Clausen will talk about the international success of Danish television drama, such as the award-winning series The Killing and The Government (the latter will be screened in full). The market section also includes the Benelux Screenings of recent features and full-length documentaries.