05/08/2013 - Danish director Mikkel Nørgaard's adaption of the best-selling novel by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen will have its world premiere on the Piazza Grande

Danish director Mikkel Nørgaard's thriller The Keeper of Lost Causes [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Eugenio Mira
film profile] can hardly lose in Locarno, since it is not in competition. It will have its world premiere before an audience of 8,000 on the Piazza Grande during the Locarno International Film Festival (August 7-17), introducing the €20.1 million franchise from Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen’s novels, staged by Denmark’s Zentropa Entertainments and commercial broadcaster TV2.

The four novels about deputy detective superintendent Carl Mørck and his Department Q - for "cases of special focus" – have so far sold six million copies worldwide, including 1.3 million in Denmark alone. The Keeper of Lost Causes was last year awarded the Deadly Pleasures Barry Prize for Best Novel in the US, where it entered the New York Times’ list of bestsellers. 

Danish actor Nikolaj Lie Kaas stars as Mørck, with Søren Pilmark as his superior chief of homicide and Swedish actor Fares Fares as his sidekick, Hafez al Hassad, trying to solvethe mystery ofa politician (Sonja Richter) who disappeared five years ago and is now presumed dead. 

In fact, she was abducted and incarcerated in an isolated pressure chamber and Mørck & Co’s investigation takes them “deep into the undercurrent of abuse and malice that lurks beneath the polished surface of Scandinavia”, as expressed by Danish writer-director Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mikkel Boe Følsgaard
interview: Nikolaj Arcel
film profile]), who penned the script. Louise Vesth produced the film for Zentropa Denmark, with Zentropa Berlin and Sweden, and Germany’s ZDF Television/Enterprises.

Before the premiere, Danish international sales agency TrustNordisk has licensed the thriller to 32 territories, including the UK (Arrow Films), Australia/New Zealand (Madman Entertainment), Germany/Austria (NFP Distribution), Benelux (Lumière), Russia (Silverbox) and China (HGC Entertainment).