06/06/2016 - Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s Thelma is among five new features supported by the Norwegian Film Institute

After his English-language feature Louder than Bombs [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joachim Trier
film profile], starring Isabelle Huppert and Gabriel Byrne – Norway’s first contender for the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 36 years – Norwegian director Joachim Trier returns to his mother tongue with Thelma [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Eili Harboe
interview: Joachim Trier
film profile], a supernatural thriller which will shoot from September.

Following a young woman who falls in love and realises she has frightening and inexplicable powers – scripted with Trier’s usual partner and director colleague Eskil Vogt – Thelma received €1.2 million in production funding from the Norwegian Film Institute, which announced on 2 June that it had allocated €3.6 million for five new features.

“By making a supernatural thriller set in a seemingly realistic, contemporary Norway, Trier will combine an exciting and visual genre film with a close character drama,” explained the institute’s film consultant Eva Færevaag. Incidentally, Louder than Bombs toured 17 international film festivals and won Trier several awards.

The new €4.2 million production will be staged by Thomas Robsahm, of Oslo’s Motlys, with Denmark’s Mikkel Jersin (Snowglobe), Sweden’s Mattias Nohrborg (B-Reel) and France’s Alexandre Mallet-Guy, from Memento Films Production, which will handle international sales. SF Norge is in charge of domestic distribution, and will release the film next spring. 

The institute will also back Pakistani-Norwegian art director-actress-turned writer-director Iram Haq’s What Will People Say [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Iram Haq
film profile], a portrait of 16-year-old Pakistani-Norwegian girl Nisha, who shares her life between Norwegian friends and her traditional Pakistani family. When her father finds her with her Norwegian boyfriend, she is sent back to Pakistan, where she has never been before, but learns about her parents’ culture. Mer Film’s Maria Ekerhovd will produce the film, which is Haq’s first since her debut I Am Yours [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] in 2013.

Meanwhile, Friland Production’s Pål Røed and Christian Fredrik Martin are supporting Norwegian director Katarina Launing’s Battle [+see also:
trailer
film profile], about young Amalie, who seems to have everything – good looks, money, a handsome boyfriend, and a talent for dancing. One day – in Maja Lunde’s screenplay about ”young people in Oslo, double life, dance and love” – her life collapses, and she must leave it all behind. Then she meets Mikael, a hip-hop dancer who is good at battles, and is different from anyone else she has ever known. Launing previously directed Kick It! in 2014.