18/04/2013 - Danish director Anne-Grethe Bjarup Riis and producer Regner Grasten start principal photography for Tarok, including scenes from Prix d'Amérique in Paris

As Danish actress-writer-director Anne-Grethe Bjarup Riis' feature debut, This Life, exceeded DVD sales of 150,000 - the film took 765,000 admissions to become No 1 on the charts last year - she started (April 15) principal photography for Tarok, the biopic of Denmark's most famous trotting horse.

After an extensive research, three horses have been cast in the main role - Passion for Bamboo, Primus Pax, Paymaster - by the real-life jockey of Tarok, Jørn Laursen; together they won 111 races out of 156 between 1975-1980, and a total of €400,000.

Laursen will be played by Henrik Vestergaard, his wife by Iben Dorner - his father, Karl Laursen, who instigated the Kima Stable, by Bjarne Henriksen, in the film married to Kirsten Lehfeldt. Also among the leads: Thomas Ernst, Frederik Meldal Nørgaard. Laursen's son, Jens Laursen, will perform in the action scenes.

From locations in Copenhagen and Jutland, including the Stud Farm of Hagenshøj and the Skive Racetrack (which will be reconstructed at the Holstebro Speedway), crew and cast will go to Paris to shoot sequences from the Prix d'Amérique in Vincennes (Tarok once came in fourth).

"I am sure audiences will leave the cinema with the feeling that they can also do as the Laursen family from Skive:  make their dream come true," explained Danish producer Regner Grasten (pictured together with the director), of Grasten Film. "Or as Karl Laursen said it himself: 'It is the will and the courage that create the miracles of life'."

When Tarok died in 1981, Danish pubcaster DR opened its TV news announcing: "Dannebrog on four legs is dead." Produced on a €3.5 million budget, from a script by Jesper Nicolaj Christiansen, the film will be domestically released on October 31.

Photo copyright: Kamilla Bryndum