21/11/2018 - After impressing local industry and B.O. with their debut While We Live, the successful trio casts Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Cecilie Stenspil in their upcoming family drama

The Avaz Brothers (centre) surrounded by their cast for their sophomore film Collision (© Rolf Konow)

The Avaz brothers surprised the Danish industry with their limited budget debut melodrama While We Live [+see also:
trailer
film profile] directed by Mehdi Avaz. The film was not only successful at last year’s box office, with over 100,000 admissions, but it was also nominated for five Robert and four Bodil awards. Now they are preparing their second feature, Collision [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which will start shooting this week.

The story, written by Milad Avaz and inspired by true events, follows married couple Leo and Olivia, who are experiencing an unexpected crisis. As they are going through a bitter divorce, their nine-year-old daughter Liv will become a throw-ball between the mother and father. The film aims to explore the struggles that a family encounters while it falls apart and more importantly the decisions that the parents have to make regarding their children.

Leo is played by the Danish star Nikolaj Lie Kaas, who is gaining popularity thanks to the fourth instalment of the “Department Q” franchise (read the news here), while Cecilie Stenspil, in her first leading role, will portray his wife Olivia and Karla Sigrid Wienberg Avaz will play Liv, the daughter of the film’s producer, Misam Avaz. The lead in While We Live, Sebastian Jessen, will play Olivia’s war-traumatised brother Frederik, Tommy Kenter will play her father Harald and Henning Jensen will play Leo's father Bjarne. The cast also stars Rasmus Bjerg, Nicolas Bro, Charlotte Munck, Casper Crump, Karla Avaz, Cecilie Stenspil, Gordon Kennedy, Albert Rudbeck Lindhart, and Jess Dorph-Petersen. The seasoned pianist Bent Fabricius-Bjerre will once again be collaborating with the brothers on a film score.

Principle photography will start on 23 November in Aarhus and in Frederikshavn on the northeast coast of the Jutland peninsula in northern Denmark. Collision is expected to have a bigger budget than the brothers’ debut, which they had to finance themselves as no one from the industry wanted to back their endeavour. One year later, everyone is willing to collaborate with them.

Collision is produced by Misam Avaz, for the brothers’ Rocket Road Pictures with Kim Magnusson, Sara Victoria Pedersen, and Nordisk Film, supported by the Danish Film Institute’s Market Scheme, pubcaster TV2, for which the Avaz brothers also developed the TV series Grow, and the West Danish Film Fund. International sales are being handled by TrustNordisk and will be released locally in autumn 2019.