DFI-FILMCategory berlin ISSUE 2014 FILM is published by the Danish Film Institute SOMEONE YOU LOVE CATHEDRALS OF CULTURE NYMPHOMANIAC Pernille Fischer Christensen is the What is a building’s soul? Lars von Trier’s story supervisor, actors, uncrowned queen of the intimate, marketing people and critics tell the interpersonal drama. BEYOND BEYOND tale of the controversial director and Come down the rabbit hole. his erotic epic. THE CONTEST Martin Miehe-Renard turns the son DFI-FILM | Berlin Issue 2014 concept of the “stranger” on its head. A tale of puppies and men. 1 Category FILM is the Danish Film Institute’s international VIEWS ON Six months after his infamous press conference in Cannes, Lars von Trier stopped making festival magazine, issued prior to the festivals in Berlin, 20 public statements. “I have realised that I do not possess the skills to express myself Cannes and Amsterdam. FILM includes a comprehensive NYMPHOMANIAC unequivocally,” the director said, adding that he would now dedicate himself fully to his catalogue in the reverse section. films. Consequently we give the floor to von Trier’s story supervisor, actors, marketing DFI-FILM people and critics to let them tell the tale of the director and his erotic epic Nymphomaniac. BERLIN ISSUE 2014 Published by the Danish Film Institute FILM Digital Issue is the Danish Film Institute’s web release for your smartphone, tablet or computer. Editors FILM Digital Issue brings articles on new films, Susanna Neimann (SN) Annemarie Hørsman (AH) a catalogue section and useful information about people and companies. Editorial team Lars Fiil-Jensen (LFJ) Anders Budtz-Jørgensen (ABJ) FILM Digital Issue: www.dfi.dk/film Support: Nynne Østergaard (NØ) DFI Festival team The Danish Film Institute is the national agency Lizette Gram Mygind that supports and encourages Danish film and Christian Juhl Lemche STARTING FROM THE CHARACTERS DIFFERENT BUT BEST FRIENDS OF PUPPIES AND MEN Anne Marie Kürstein cinema culture. 08 Since winning a Silver Bear in 2006 for 14 Sawsan is a Danish-Turkish girl in a city 36 With his short filmSon , Kristoffer Kiørboe her first featureA Soap, Pernille Fischer neighbourhood. Karl was raised as a has made a low-key rites-of-passage story Translations Christensen has kept refining the intimate Christian in a fishing hamlet. Children see about self-absorbed grownups and a boy Glen Garner interpersonal story. So too in her new differences as natural – in real life and in The who is saddled with more responsibility film,Someone You Love. Contest, director Martin Miehe-Renard says. than he can bear. Design Rasmus Koch Studio Art Direction Pernille Volder Lund Type TRINE DYRHOLM LOVE AND FISHING QUOTAS 04 EDITORIAL Holton, Swift, Akzidenz 12 Discover the films by the actress, also 40 The Sunfish, Søren Balle’s first feature, is Paper featuring in Someone You Love. a story set among cod fishers and quota MultiDesign White speculation, with a dash of unlikely love. Printed by DANICA CURCIC 04 NEWS & NOTES I Centertryk 16 The Serbian-born actress is starring in no MAKING CONNECTIONS Circulation less than four features in 2014, including 42 Final Cut for Real, the company behind 2,000 Christian E. Christiansen’s On the Edge. Joshua Oppenheimer’s Oscar-nominated The Act of Killing, has a partiality for films 46 NEWS & NOTES II ISSN 1399-2813 (print version) TURBO-CHARGED REALISM that shake our worldview. ISSN 1903-7511 (online version) 18 On the Edge sees Christian E. Christiansen returning to the raw realism that comes DENMARK’S REGIONAL FUNDS Cover Director Lars von Trier most natural to him. The regional film funds are important to the FACTS & FIGURES Photo: Christian Geisnæs 44 49 success of Danish films and television. NEW HEAD OF FILM SCHOOL Danish Film Institute Vinca Wiedemann, story supervisor on FOUR CO-PRODUCTIONS Gothersgade 55 32 Nymphomaniac, points to the National Film Introducing four titles with co-production DK-1123 Copenhagen K 45 + CATALOGUE School’s importance in Danish cinema. support from the Danish Film Institute. T +45 3374 3400 REVERSE SECTION THE SOUL OF ARCHITECTURE DANISH OSCAR NOMINATIONS www.dfi.dk/english 34 Six directors present their takes on 47 Three films got through to the final round architectural space in Cathedrals of Culture. in the world’s most prestigious film competition. DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE 38 Director Esben Toft Jacobsen and TO WATCH OUT FOR scriptwriter Jannik Tai Mosholt are bringing 48 Three new documentaries look at high-stake us a new enchanting fable, Beyond Beyond. politics, family history and circus life. 2 DFI-FILM | Berlin Issue 2014 DFI-FILM | Berlin Issue 2014 EditorialCategory news & notes is over. The atmosphere grows Why Public Film Funding? increasingly, almost unbearably tense films & people Rolf Konow News & Notes as the weekend progresses and old conflicts bubble up to the surface. After a 10-year hiatus as director, The Film Act sets the overall guidelines for the Photo: “It’s their absolutely last chance Anders Thomas Jensen is back work of the Danish Film Institute. A new film to speak their piece and make with a grotesque comedy, Men & policy accord will be made this year, identifying up. Because the human drama is Chicken, starring Mads Mikkelsen priorities and objectives for public film funding so acute, there is room to depict and produced by M&M Productions. Henrik Petit intimate relationships and take a In recent years, Jensen has been over the next four years. Now that the preparatory close-up look at the psychological racking up high-profile credits as work is underway, it seems like a good moment Photo: mechanisms that arise on the way,” a screenwriter, including Susanne to reflect on why we even have a film policy. August says. Bier’s Oscar-winning In a Better Taxpayers pay a lot of money to Danish Cinema. The film marks the Danish World and Kristian Levring’s 2014 What does it get us? When you prioritize director’s return to the intimate release The Salvation. Men & Chicken A Second Chance human drama of his Palme d’Or opens in 2015. resources for culture in a time of crisis, it has to winners Pelle the Conqueror and Director and scriptwriter Tobias make sense. It must add value to society. The Best Intentions, the latter from a Lindholm is concluding his trilogy screenplay by Ingmar Bergman, his of “desperate men in small rooms” Danes are clearly showing tremendous interest in Selma Lagerlöf adaptation Jerusalem, with The War, about a military action their local films. Is it a good thing that citizens and A Song for Martin, about mature in Afghanistan. Like Lindholm’s R love’s bitter struggle with Alzheimer’s. and A Highjacking, the new film are interested in the visual culture of their own Sense of Snow and Les Misérables The central role as the mother stars Danish actor Pilou Asbæk country? Should a small country go into film since the early ‘90s, Bille August is in Silent Heart is played by Ghita (also known from Borgen). The War, production? The answer, of course, is yes. It is a Back to now returning to a Scandinavian film Nørby, the grande dame of Danish produced by Nordisk Film, starts strength to have such diversity in the range of his waking hours getting drunk at tradition with echoes of Bergman and theatre, who also appeared in The shooting in 2014. films that most of our citizens are able to find New Bier the local strip club. All that changes chamber plays. Best Intentions. The cast includes Michael Noer, Tobias Lindholm’s when they respond to a domestic His Roots Silent Heart is about a family that Morten Grunwald, Paprika Steen, co-director on the prison drama R, cinematic narratives that speak to them. Drama disturbance involving a junkie married gathers for an unusual weekend at Danica Curcic and Pilou Asbæk. has started shooting his third feature, couple. When Andreas discovers IN THE PIPELINE. Silent Heart has the home of the matriarch, who has Jesper Morthorst is producing for SF Nøgle Hus Spejl (Danish title). Another argument involves quality. We wouldn’t IN THE PIPELINE. Nikolaj Coster- the couple’s infant son crying in a Bille August returning to the kind been diagnosed with an incurable Film Production, with a release set Ghita Nørby stars in the central role be able to make films of such high quality without Waldau stars in Susanne Bier’s closet, the usually so composed cop of intense drama that first won disease. She has asked her dear for late 2014. AH of Lily who moves to a nursing home public funding. A certain number of films could new drama A Second Chance. finds himself confronting his own him international acclaim. ones home to bid her a final farewell with her husband because of his powerlessness. as wife, mother, mother-in-law and Photo of Bille August (fourth from illness. Amidst all the turmoil, Lily be produced on the market’s terms, but nowhere Playing the fiendish Jaime Lannister Susanne Bier continues her A director of literary adaptations like friend. In fact, she has decided to right) and his cast for Silent Heart. meets the last love of her life, The near the same standard without state backing for in HBO’s Game of Thrones was an longstanding partnership with The House of the Spirits, Smilla’s end her own life when the weekend Pilot, played by Sven Wollter. Nordisk funding, education and schemes to help ensure international breakthrough for Nikolaj screenwriter Anders Thomas Film is producing the film. Release that we have an able film business. Coster-Waldau who will soon be Jensen, which began in 2002 with in 2015.