28/08/2007

Sunrise Film Distribution is sharpening its taste for Norwegian fare. After Joachim Trier’s Reprise [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joachim Trier
interview: Karin Julsrud
film profile], set to open this Friday in Denmark, the company has acquired Danish rights for Bard Breien’s award-winning film The Art of Negative Thinking [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Sold by Nordisk Film International Sales, The Art of Negative Thinking won the Crystal Globe for Best Director at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in July. Sunrise intends to release the film in Denmark next December or in January 2008. The comedy-drama about a wheelchair-bound accident victim who takes part in a group therapy was produced by Norway’s Maipo Film.

Peter Bendtsen, who set up the distribution outfit in 2004 with the aim of feeding the local market with quality arthouse films, says: “Norwegian films have had a rather low profile in Denmark so far, but hopefully this is going to change. We’ve done quite a few preview screenings on Reprise and we’ve had very good responses from the audience”.

Trier’s film, which triumphed at the last Amanda Awards (Norway’s top film honours, see news) is opening this Friday on three screens.

The previous Norwegian film distributed by Sunrise was Pål Sletaune’s Next Door [+see also:
film review
film profile], released in 2005. The company’s most successful Nordic films released in Denmark were Dalecarlians [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maria Blom
film profile] (6,587 admissions in 2005) and Four Shades of Brown (5,923 admissions in 2004).

Other European films released earlier this year by Sunrise include Philip Gröning’s Into Great Silence [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Philip Groening
film profile] and Dominic Moll’s Lemming [+see also:
trailer
film profile].