THREE SHORTS IN COMPETITION DANES IN THE OSCAR RUN THINK TANK ON EUROPEAN FILMS Three Danish children’s short fi lms are selected to Susanne Bier’s feature fi lm After the Wedding is The ThinkTank on European Film and Film Policy has compete in Generation Kplus: Louise N.D. Friedberg’s nominated in the category of Best Foreign Language come about because of a suspicion that there are sev- Blood Sisters, Esben Toft Jacobsen’s Having a Brother fi lm, and Søren Pilmark’s short fi ction Helmer and eral serious problems with fi lm in Europe, and perhaps and Niels Bisbo’s The Girl Through the Telescope. Son in the category of Best Short Film (Live Action). a few things to be done to remedy those problems. PAGE 4-7 PAGE 3 PAGE 22-23 l1l FILM IS PUBLISHED BY THE#55 DANISH FILM INSTITUTE / FEBRUARY 2007 PAGE 2 / FILM#55 / BERLIN SPECIAL ISSUE l1l FILM#55/ BERLIN ISSUE INSIDE THREE DANISH SHORT FILMS SELECTED FOR BERLIN 2007 GENERATION KPLUS COMPETITION “Children want to recognize themselves in fi lms. We need to take their confl icts seriously and not just dish out feel-good stories with empty calories,” Louise Blood Sisters N.D. Friedberg says. Her new short fi lm, Blood Sisters, describes a love triangle between seven-year-old girls. PAGE 4 GENERATION KPLUS COMPETITION In Having a Brother, Esben Toft Jacobsen used animal characters, as he discovered that human characters in the parts would be too unpleasant. “When we use animals instead, the kids get into the story and it takes the harsh edge off, “ says Toft Jacobsen. PAGE 6-7 Having a Brother GENERATION KPLUS COMPETITION In his fi lm The Girl Through the Telescope, Bisbo was inspired by his own experiences. “I once asked a girl if she wanted to go out with me,” Bisbo FILM #55 / BERLIN ISSUE says. “I wasn’t very old and I gave her a note and then hid under my bed. I February 2007 wanted to build my graduate fi lm on that feeling and deal with this kind of PUBLISHED BY Danish Film Institute embarrassment.” PAGE 6-7 EDITORS Agnete Dorph Stjernfelt, Susanna Neimann ISLAND OF LOST SOULS EDITORIAL TEAM Lars Fiil-Jensen, Vicki Synnott Nikolaj Arcel’s second feature is a large-scale children’s action and adventure TRANSLATIONS Glen Garner genre piece, jammed with digital effects made by the Danish digital production DESIGN Rasmus Koch Studio The Girl Through the Telescope house Ghost. PAGE 8-9 ART DIRECTOR Anne Hemp TYPE Cendia, Millton, Underton PAPER Munken Lynx 100 gr. VON TRIER’S BIG GENRE GAME PRINTED BY Schultz Grafi sk Roughly a decade ago, Lars von Trier wrote the Dogme manifesto and sent CIRCULATION 10,500 shockwaves through the international fi lm community by setting out rules for ISSN 1399-2813 his fi lms as a way to unleash fresh creativity. After Dogville and Manderlay, he COVER After the Wedding. Photo: Ole Kragh-Jacobsen thought the time was ripe for a new remedy – he had once again become too accomplished and, consequently, too slick. PAGE 10-11 THE MERCHANT OF ZENTROPA FILM is published by the Danish Film Institute Island of Lost Souls (DFI). 8 issues annually, 3 are in English and The boss of it all, Peter Aalbæk Jensen, puts down his cigar and clown mask to published prior to the festivals at Cannes, talk about Zentropa – the leading fi lm company in Denmark bringing us Dogme Amsterdam and Berlin. fi lms and the work of Lars von Trier – and how it operates in the day to day. All articles are written by freelance fi lm critics PAGE 12-15 and journalists. RISK AND RENEWAL IN DANISH CINEMA / ESSAY David Bordwell: Excellent performers, sophisticated directors, and well- The Danish Film Institute is the national agency carpentered scripts are the mainstay of recent Danish fi lm. This is yet another responsible for supporting and encouraging fi lm and cinema culture. The Institute’s operations unintended consequence of the Dogme manifesto, which called for a break extend from participation in the development with conformity. PAGE 16-19 and production of feature fi lms, shorts and documentaries, over distribution and marketing, After the Wedding to managing the national fi lm archive and the INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION cinematheque. The total budget of the DFI 2007 Ninety-nine percent of all Danish fi lms sold abroad are handled by two Danish is DKK 373 m / EURO 50 m. players: Nordisk Film International Sales and Trust Film Sales. PAGE 20-21 Subscriptions: ninac@dfi .dk THINKTANK ON EUROPEAN FILM AND FILM POLICY How could public funding more effectively support European fi lm creatively DANISH FILM INSTITUTE and commercially? Leading European producers and fi lmmakers, distributors, GOTHERSGADE 55 public funding bodies and decision makers are gaining forces in this new DK-1123 COPENHAGEN K, DENMARK T +45 3374 3400 initiative with a view to strengthening the European market for European susannan@dfi .dk / agnetes@dfi .dk The Boss of it All fi lms. PAGE 22-23 BERLIN SPECIAL ISSUE / FILM#55 / PAGE 3 TWO DANISH FILMS COMPETING IN THE Two Danish fi lms are competing for an Oscar: Susanne Bier’s OSCARS Helmer and Son. Framegrab feature fi lm After the Wedding is nominated in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’ category of Best Foreign Language fi lm, and Søren Pilmark’s short fi ction Helmer and Son in the category of Best Short Film (Live Action). Produced by Sisse Graum Jørgensen Benico Del Toro. for Zentropa Productions, After the Produced by Leila Vestgaard and Wedding captured Danish audiences René Ezra for Nordisk Film, Helmer and sold some 400,000 tickets. and Son is directed by renowned Internationally, Bier’s After the Danish actor, Søren Pilmark. The Wedding also met with great success. fi lm is one of the productions under It opened at the prestigious Toronto Nordisk Film’s strategic pool which International Film Festival in Canada develops new talents, thus the last September, and was welcomed by director, producer and scriptwriter an enthusiastic public. The fi lm will behind Helmer and Son are new- be released by IFC in the US in spring, comers in their respective fi elds to After the Wedding. Photo: Ole Kragh-Jacobsen and is secured distribution in some 45 Danish fi lm. Managing Director at other territories. Nordisk Film, Kim Magnusson is Bier has directed a number of himself, as producer, an Oscar-winner AFTER THE WEDDING/ REVIEWS critically acclaimed feature fi lms, all and thrice nominee. “… new fi lm by Danish helmer Susanne Bier manages to be both emotional and backed by a large Danish audience: engaging (…) pic has defi nite potential to travel.” Brothers (2004), Open Hearts (2002), OSCARS WON BY DANES (Gunnar Rehlin in Variety / Mar. 27, 2006) and The One and Only (1999). During On two occasions Denmark has won recent years, she has also achieved an Oscar in the category of Best “A fi lmmaker who excels in peeling back those delicate layers of human frailty, international renown, bringing her Foreign Language Film: Gabriel Axel’s Denmark’s Susanne Bier returns (…) with another powerful family portrait (…) to the US where she is currently in Babette’s Feast won an Academy Once again Bier demonstrates just how misleading appearances can be, as she post-production with the feature fi lm Award in 1988, and Pelle the artfully removes the veneers concealing the dark truths locked away by her Things We Lost in the Fire (release to Conqueror by Bille August won in intriguing characters.” be announced), with Halle Berry and 1989. (The Hollywood Reporter / Sept 8, 2006) STENSGAARD AUGUST COMPETING JURY AT THE BERLINALE MEMBER Danish director Bille August returns to the Berlin Film Festival Film editor and fi lm consultant with Goodbye Bafana, the story of a white South African racist Molly Malene Stensgaard is whose life was profoundly altered by the black prisoner he a member of the Berlinale guarded for 20 years. The prisoner’s name was Nelson Mandela. International Jury 2007. August’s new fi lm Goodbye Bafana is August last entered a fi lm in Molly Malene Stensgaard, 40, a DFI based on a book of the same name by Berlin in 1997, the thriller Smilla’s feature fi lm consultant, has been Molly Malene Stensgaard. Photo: Jan Buus James Gregory and Bob Graham. The Sense of Snow. His new fi lm, Goodbye named a member of this year’s including In Your Hands, Dogville, prison guard, James Gregory, was a Bafana, marks a return to the festival Berlinale Jury. Dancer in the Dark and The Idiots. typical South African who looked at circuit for August who fi rst won A 1993 graduate in editing from In recent years, she has worked black people as less than human. international acclaim in 1987 for Pelle the National Film School of Denmark, with the Binger Institute in Gregory’s loyality slowly shifted the Conqueror, which took home the Stensgaard has cut a number of Amsterdam, teaching a series of from racism to direct support of Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival standout Danish features and intensive master classes in storytelling Mandela’s struggle for a free and and later earned the director an documentaries from the past decade, at the treatment level. democratic South Africa. Academy Award. PAGE 4 / FILM#55 / GENERATION KPLUS COMPETITION / LOUISE FRIEDBERG / BLOOD SISTERS Blood Sisters. Photo: Lars Reinholdt Children want to recognise themselves in fi lms. We need to take all peaches and cream. Especially not if someone feels left out and is afraid of their confl icts seriously and not just dish out feel-good stories losing her best friend.