21/09/2022 - The picture follows a male nurse who ends up working in Nuuk, Greenland, and who tries to connect with the local culture through sex

l-r: Emil Johnsen, Isabella Eklöf and Berda Larsen on the set of Kalak (© Christian Klindt Solbeck)

Swedish filmmaker Isabella Eklöf’s second feature, Kalak [+see also:
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The script, penned by the helmer herself together with Kim Leine and Sissel Dalsgaard Thomsen, is an adaptation of Leine’s debut novel of the same name. Based on a true story, Kalak revolves around Jan (Emil Johnsen), a nurse who is also a father, who was sexually abused by his father as a teenager. Working in Nuuk, Greenland, he tries to connect with the culture through sex. When someone calls him a Kalak, a Greenlandic word which has the double meaning of denoting both a “true” and a “dirty” Greenlander, he wears the epithet as a badge of honour. But ultimately, he has to confront his father.

Production is now under way in Copenhagen, and will continue in Nuuk and Kulusuk, in Greenland. Other main cast members are Asta Kamma August, Søren Hellerup, Berda Larsen, Connie Kristoffersen and Hans-Jukku Noahsen. DoP Nadim Carlsen (Holiday, Border, Holy Spider [+see also:
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Kalak is being produced by Maria Møller Kjeldgaard for Denmark’s Manna Film, with Scanbox in charge of its Nordic distribution. Other partners include Sweden’s Momento Film and Film i Väst, Norway’s Mer Film, Dutch outfit Lemming Film, Finland’s Made, Nuuk-based Polarama Greenland and Denmark’s Beofilm. The project has also received backing from the Danish Film Institute, DR, FilmFyn, the European Union’s Creative Europe – MEDIA programme, the government of Greenland, NAPA, the Sermersooq Municipality Culture Fund, the Swedish Film Institute, SVT, the Norwegian Film Institute, Mediefondet Zefyr, NRK, the Netherlands Film Fund, the Finnish Film Foundation, YLE and the Nordisk Film & TV Fond. The picture is slated for release in 2023.