Danish films by Jonas Elmer and Lotte Svendsen backed by the Nordisk Film & TV Fond

18/07/2016 - The former’s I Am William and the latter’s What a Circus will shortly start principal photography

Directors Jonas Elmer and Lotte Svendsen (© Sisse Stroyer)

Danish director Jonas Elmer, whose latest feature, In Real Life (2014), toured the international festival circuit, is readying his fifth movie, I Am William [+see also:
trailer
film profile], from a script by award-winning Danish writer Kim Fupz Aakeson. The film will shoot from October. Produced by Jakob Høgel and Stine Meldgaard, for Meta Film, it follows 11-year-old William, whose parents are both admitted to a psychiatric hospital, so he stays with his Uncle Nils. However, Nils likes to drink and gamble, and when he gets into trouble with a local gangster, it is up to William to sort it out. SF Studios will handle the local distribution.

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The Oslo-based top-up financier Nordisk Film & TV Fond has supported the production with €0.1 million and has also contributed €0.2 million to Danish director Lotte Svendsen’s What a Circus, which will be her sixth feature, also to start principal photography shortly. Most recently, Svendsen created the children’s TV series Max Embarrassing with actress Mette Horn, which became a prize-winning feature trilogy between 2008 and 2012. Produced by Per Holst’s Asta Film, her new film deals with the consequences of adult conflicts and the ability to forgive, paying homage to the magic of circus and an alternative way of life.

The Nordisk Film & TV Fond has also chipped in €2.1 million for Tides Upon the Storm, a 10 x 58-minute television series produced by Camilla Hammerich for Danish pubcaster DR Drama, with ARTE and SAM le Français, in association with StudioCanal, which handles the international sales. Co-written by Adam Price, Karina Dam and Poul Berg, with Kaspar Munk as concept director, the series inspired by the myth of Cain and Abel explores the concept of faith, with Lars Mikkelsen, Ann Eleonora, Simon Sears and Morten Hee Andersen in the leads. The first season will be aired in the autumn of 2017, with the second following in 2018.