Last week, Danish sales agent REinvent unveiled its rich slate ahead of the upcoming European Film Market (EFM, 13-19 February), boasting a diverse selection that spans films and series from a wide number of countries, including a Danish co-production with South Korea.

The first title, playing in the Panorama section of the Berlinale, is Beginnings [+lire aussi :
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interview : Jeanette Nordahl
fiche film], starring Trine Dyrholm (The Girl with the Needle [+lire aussi :
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interview : Besir Zeciri
interview : Directors Talks @ European…
interview : Magnus von Horn
fiche film]) and David Dencik (No Time To Die [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]) in the leading roles, and directed by Jeanette Nordahl, whose feature debut, Wildland [+lire aussi :
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interview : Jeanette Nordahl
fiche film], also celebrated its world premiere in Panorama in 2020. The film is being produced by Snowglobe and is slated for a release on 25 September. It focuses on soon-to-be-divorced couple Ane and Thomas. The man is on the verge of moving in with his new girlfriend, Stine, when Ane suddenly suffers a severe stroke. They decide to stay together owing to the circumstances, learning to cope with their new life together.

Debuting director Nina Knag’s Don’t Call Me Mama [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] (Norway) is the second title in the line-up. The pic is a psychological thriller starring Pia Tjelta, Kristoffer Joner and Tarek Zayat, and follows Eva, a popular secondary-school teacher and wife to the town's mayor, who faces the ultimate test when she falls in love with a young asylum seeker.

Next, there’s Mads Hedegaard’s Stranger, a survival drama world-premiering at the ongoing Göteborg Film Festival as the closing gala film. Set in approximately 4000 BC in the territory of modern-day Denmark, it features the use of a pre-Indo-European language, which has been developed exclusively for it. Another REinvent title is Zinnini Elkington’s Second Victims, which is also being presented at Göteborg and has been selected for its Nordic Film Market. The film is a single-location drama following a neurologist on a shift that will change her life forever.

Brightly Shining (Norway) is a 90-minute family flick based on Ingvild Rishøi’s critically acclaimed and award-winning book of the same name. The feature marks Sagmo Tvedte’s debut after a career spent in TV directing.

Among the films still in production is Frederik Sølberg’s Hana Korea (Denmark/South Korea), the story of a young North Korean refugee’s pursuit of happiness, as she struggles to find her own place in a hypermodern society that demands sacrifice and surrender. The film is co-written by actor and writer-director Sharon Choi (Parasite), and stars Minha Kim (Pachinko), Kim Joo-ryung (Squid Game) and Seohyun Ahn (Okja).

Meanwhile, Antti J Jokinen’s Son of Revenge - The Story of Kalevala (Finland) is an action-drama set in the 11th century in Kalevala, where protagonist Kullervo comes to realise that the same people who have raised him, the tribe of Untamo, were also involved in the killing of his family, during the massacre of his entire tribe. Also in production is The Squirrel (Finland), a utopian sci-fi drama set in a futuristic universe, directed by Markus Lehmusruusu.

From Sweden comes The Dance Club, toplined by Nils Wetterholm, Alva Bratt, Pernilla August, Evelyn Mok and Mattias Varela (see the news). The pic marks the return of award-winning director and screenwriter Lisa Langseth, following the success of her Netflix series Love & Anarchy [+lire aussi :
critique
interview : Gizem Erdogan
interview : Lisa Langseth
fiche série]. Also from Denmark is Hercules Falling, Christian Bonke’s feature debut, which deals with the tough and important subject matter of war veterans and mental trauma. The last feature in the line-up is Frostbite, a German disaster survival thriller helmed by Lukas Rinker, still in pre-production.

Finally, REinvent will also be presenting six series. Two of them, Vigdis (Iceland) and A Sami Wedding (Norway), are already completed. The former is a 4x58-minute show based on the inspiring true story of Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, who, in 1980, made history not only as Iceland’s first female president, but also as the world’s first democratically elected female head of state. A Sami Wedding, on the other hand, is an 8x30-minute show set in the small Sámi town of Kautokeino, and focuses on themes of homophobia, racism, cultural clashes and a dysfunctional family as two families are about to unite through a traditional Sámi wedding.

In post-production is the 6x45-minute action-thriller series Reykjavik 112 (Iceland), while in production is the 6x44-minute thriller-drama Escaping Bolivia (Norway).

REinvent’s slate is rounded off by the second seasons – still in the works – of Seconds (Finland), a 6x50-minute disaster drama, and Oxen (Denmark), a 6x45-minute action-drama.