07/08/2006

Jens Lien’s The Bothersome Man [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jens Lien
interview: Jørgen Storm Rosenberg
film profile] and Joachim Trier’s Reprise have been selected to screen, respectively, in the Contemporary World Cinema and Discovery sections of the 31st Toronto International Film Festival (September 7-16).

Based on Per Schreiner’s radio play, The Bothersome Man follows a 40 year-old man who arrives in a strange city and a reality he has never seen before. He gradually realises that he just entered his own afterlife and must get out.

The film, produced by Jørgen Storm Rosenberg for Tordenfilm in Norway, in co-production with the Icelandic Film Company, was a hit with critics and international buyers at the recent Cannes Film Festival, where it screened in Critics’ Week and won the ACID Prize.

The Bothersome Man has since been released in Norway through Sandrew Metronome and has been sold by Bavaria Film International to several key world territories, including France (CTV), Belgium (IFD), Greece (2-1-0-Films), Switzerland (Look Now!), Hungary (Budapest Film Distribution) and Romania (Transilvania Film).

Reprise, shown in competition at the latest Karlovy Vary Film Festival, is the feature debut of 32 year-old Trier, who wrote the script with co-director Eskil Vogt. Trier, an ex Norwegian skateboarding champion who began directing skate videos, used his skills and knowledge for his first film, utilising fast cuts, rhythm and music. The film, about would-be writers, madness, love and punk music, is simultaneously humorous, playful and sad.

Produced in Norway by Karin Julsrud for 4½ Production, in co-production with Sweden’s Film Lance, the film is being sold by Nordisk Film International Sales.