Danish writer Morten Pape’s award-winning and critically acclaimed bestseller Planen is being adapted for the big screen, with Danish director and screenwriter Anders Ølholm at the helm. The drama, based on Pape’s autofictional account of growing up on Copenhagen’s Urbanplanen housing estate, has just wrapped principal photography in Copenhagen and Gothenburg.

The film follows 15-year-old Morten, whose life is turned upside down when his parents separate. His mother struggles with depression, while his father suddenly prefers spending time with his new girlfriend and her children, rather than with Morten. Through his classmate Behrouz, Morten finds a new sense of community among the immigrant boys from the neighbourhood. But straddling both sides comes at a cost in a culturally divided environment. After 11 September, hatred boils over, which has consequences for Morten’s friendship with Behrouz and forces him to find his own place in life.

The young cast is led by newcomer Gustav Morén Grønkjær as Morten, alongside Eyad Nahed Jaber as Behrouz, Sylvester Engelhardt as Mike, Ammar Mahmoud Abdou Awad as Fuad, Abubakar Fuad Osman Khalif as Guled, Yacine Touabti as Rami, Marlie Lyhne Vildbæk as Leila and Adam Frost Bensmail as Psykose Emrah. They are joined by established Danish actors Ena Spottag (The Cake Dynasty) and Joen Højerslev (The Chestnut Man, The Penultimate), who play Morten’s parents, while Mette Horn (The Shift) plays his grandmother and Klaus Tange (Sauna) takes on the role of Helge, his mother’s new partner.

Ølholm directs from a screenplay he co-wrote with Pape, who commented: “Originally, the story of Planen was actually a film idea, but no one really wanted to hear about it or realise it ten or 15 years ago. Instead, I had to write and publish it as a novel, so in many ways, this film adaptation is a dream come true. Working with Anders has been incredibly rewarding, as we have reimagined the book’s sprawling narrative as a more compact film version and have tightened the story in the right places.”

Planen marks Ølholm’s second feature as a director, following Shorta, which he co-directed with Frederik Louis Hviid. The action-drama premiered in the Venice Critics’ Week and went on to receive 11 Robert Award nominations and four Bodil Award nods. Ølholm most recently wrote and directed the Amazon Prime series Snake Killer.

Commenting on the project, Ølholm said: “I clearly remember the first time I read Planen by Morten Pape. Never before had I read a novel that portrayed lower-class Denmark in the 1990s so ruthlessly and authentically. In many ways, the book seemed to mirror my own story. Like Morten, I grew up in a working-class family on Amager – with a father who was neither particularly capable nor present, and a single mother struggling to make ends meet. Planen is a feature about friendship, solidarity and identity in a world marked by violence, crime and cultural division. It is a harsh, but also humorous, action-packed, moving and human story about a Denmark that is unknown to many – seen from below through the eyes of a 15-year-old boy going through puberty.”

Sebastian Winterø (Bullshit, The Chestnut Man) is the director of photography, while Kristina Kovacs (A Perfectly Normal Family) serves as production designer and Kasper Leick (A Royal Affair) is the editor. Andreas Franck (Triangle of Sadness) is handling the sound design, with Jon Ekstrand (Queen of Hearts) composing the score.

Planen is being produced by Signe Leick Jensen and Morten Kaufmann for Copenhagen-based Toolbox Film, in co-production with Erika Malmgren for Gothenburg-based Cinenic Film and Kristina Börjeson for Film i Väst. The project is supported by the Danish Film Institute, the Swedish Film Institute and the Nordisk Film & TV Fond, in collaboration with DR. Scanbox Entertainment handles the Danish distribution, while French sales company Charades represents the film internationally. The movie is scheduled to open in Danish cinemas in autumn 2027.