07/02/2012

While mingling with top Danish politicians in King's Game (2004), Danish director Nikolaj Arcel has gone to court and a couple of centuries back for A Royal Affair [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mikkel Boe Følsgaard
interview: Nikolaj Arcel
film profile], his new feature starring Mads Mikkelsen and Swedish actress Alicia Vikander that will unspool in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival (February 9-19) prior to its local premiere on March 29.

From a short promo screened at last year’s Cannes, Danish international sales agency TrustNordisk has already licensed the film to – among others - US (Magnolia), Australia-New Zealand (Madman), the UK (Metrodome Distribution), Germany (MFA+ Filmdistribution) and Spain (Golem Distribución). Managing Director Rikke Ennis, of TrustNordisk, expected to clear the table at the European Film Market in Berlin.

Scripted with Rasmus Heisterberg – they also co-wrote the award-winning King’s Game – follows the the love affair between German doctor Johann Friedrich Struensee (Mikkelsen), the physician-in-ordinary to Denmark’s schizophrenic King Christian VII, and Queen Caroline Mathilde (Vikander), an English princess who was married to him at the age of 15.

Besides being the queen’s lover, he gained strong influence in court – in 1770, he was appointed (by himself) as cabinet minister to become the de facto ruler of Denmark for 18 months and introduced freedom of the press and abolished torture. Following a conspiracy, and accused of having usurped the king’s power, he was decapitated in 1772. The queen was expelled to Celle and died in 1775.

Produced by Meta Foldager, Sisse Graum Jørgensen and Louise Vesth for Zentropa Entertainments, with support from the Danish Film Institute, the €6.4 million epic was mainly lensed in the Czech Republic, with a short detour to Dresden, Germany. Copenhagen’s Christiansborg Castle, which burnt down in 1884, has been digitally restored in 3D for the film.