BERLINALE COMPETITION PROGRAMME PANORAMA KINDERFILMFEST Pernille Fischer Christenen’s feature debut A Soap is One to One is Annette K. Olesen’s third feature film, Niels Arden Oplev’s feature, We Shall Overcome, the a funny, unconventional love story about two neigh- and her third selected for Berlin. Her earlier filmsIn short fictions Cracks by Aage Rais-Nordentoft and bours, Charlotte (Trine Dyrholm) and Ulrik/­Veronica Your Hands (2004) and Minor Mishaps (2002) ran in War and Peas by Jannik Hastrup are three current films (David Dencik) and their offbeat search for love and the official competition with the latter sweeping away which show that the dream of making children’s films lust - and their panic when they finally find both. the prestigious Blue Angel award. that make a difference is still vigorous in Denmark. PAGE 3–5 PAGE 6–7 PAGE 8 –11 l1l FILM IS PUBLISHED BY# THE DANISH FILM48 INSTITUTE / February 2006 PAGE 2 / FILM#48 / BERLIN ISSUE COMPETITION / PERNILLE FISCHER CHRISTENSEN / A SOAP / FILM#48 / PAGE 3 l1l FILM#48/ BERLIN ISSUE INSIDE (+82/4'2+)536+:/:/54685-8'33+ 6'458'3' 1/4*+8,/23,+9: 3HUQLOOH)LVFKHU&KULVWHQHQ¶VIHDWXUHGHEXW$6QCRLV 2PGVQ2PGLV$QQHWWH.2OHVHQ¶VWKLUGIHDWXUH»OP 1LHOV$UGHQ2SOHY¶VIHDWXUH:G6JCNN2XGTEQOGWKH DIXQQ\XQFRQYHQWLRQDOORYHVWRU\DERXWWZRQHLJK DQGKHUWKLUGVHOHFWHGIRU%HUOLQ+HUHDUOLHU»OPV,P VKRUW»FWLRQV&TCEMUE\$DJH5DLV1RUGHQWRIWDQG ERXUV&KDUORWWH 7ULQH'\UKROP DQG8OULN9HURQLFD <QWT+CPFU DQG0KPQT0KUJCRU UDQLQ :CTCPF3GCUE\-DQQLN+DVWUXSDUHWKUHHFXUUHQW»OPV 'DYLG'HQFLN DQGWKHLURIIEHDWVHDUFKIRUORYHDQG WKHRI»FLDOFRPSHWLWLRQZLWKWKHODWWHUVZHHSLQJDZD\ ZKLFKVKRZWKDWWKHGUHDPRIPDNLQJFKLOGUHQ¶V»OPV OXVWDQGWKHLUSDQLFZKHQWKH\»QDOO\»QGERWK WKHSUHVWLJLRXV%OXH$QJHODZDUG WKDWPDNHDGLIIHUHQFHLVVWLOOYLJRURXVLQ'HQPDUN 6'-+© 6'-+© 6'-+ © FIVE DANISH FILMS l1l ,/23/96;(2/9.+*(?:.+*'4/9.,/23/49:/:;:+,#48+(8;'8? SELECTED FOR BERLIN A Soap BERLINALE COMPETITION PROGRAMME Page 3–5 A Soap, Pernille Fischer Christenen’s feature debut, is selected for the Berlinale Competition Programme. PANORAMA Page 6-7 One to One, Annette K. Olesen’s third feature, is selected Director Annette K. Olesen for Berlin, Panorama. Photo: Erik Molberg Hansen FILM #48 / BERLIN ISSUE KINDERFILMFEST February 2006. has invited three films: Niels Arden Oplev’s feature We Page 8–11 Shall Overcome and the two short fictions War and Peas by Jannik Hastrup and Aage Rais-Nordentoft’s Cracks. PUBLISHED BY Danish Film Institute EDITORS Agnete Dorph Stjernfelt, Susanna Neimann STRONG WOMEN Page 16–21 EDITORIAL TEAM Lars Fiil-Jensen, the producers Meta Louise Foldager, Sarita Christensen Vicki Synnott TRANSLATIONS and Sisse Graum Jørgensen have a big hand in shaping the Glen Garner We Shall Overcome SOAP WITH GRIT DESIGN Rasmus Koch Studio dynamic generation of filmmakers who fuel the explosive TYPE Cendia, Millton, Underton growth of Danish film. PAPER Munken Lynx 100 gr. PRINTED BY Holmen Center Tryk A/S FIRST FEATURE Page 22 –23 CIRCULATION 10,500 ISSN 1399-2813 Three talented, young Danish directors are present- COVER A Soap ing their first feature films in 2006. Keep an eye out Photo by Lars Wahl for Christina Rosendahl’s Spåkop (English title to be announced), Kenneth Kainz’s Pure of Heart and Peter Don’t be fooled by the soap label. A Soap, Pernille Fischer is. Man, woman, falling in love, romance, a home, children Schønau Fog’s The Art of Crying. Christensen’s first feature, is no slick, never-ending TV – and preferably in that order,” Fischer Christensen says. “But — FILM is published by the Danish Film Institute series parading the everyday emotions of everyday what if the kind of love that really matters isn’t like that at all?” (DFI). 8 issues annually, 3 are in English and Producer Sisse Graum Jørgensen PICS FOR KIDS Page 12–15 people in a string of witty scenes. A soap opera is prob- published prior to the festivals at Cannes, That is the premise of her first feature-length film: interrogat- Amsterdam and Berlin. Children’s films are taken seriously in Denmark – they are ably the last thing this intense, unsparing, economically ing conventional love by confronting lovely Charlotte with more than trivial entertainment to pass the time away. staged drama about two lonely, vulnerable people is. transsexual Veronica, whose “real” name is Ulrik. Hard-nosed, All articles are written by freelance film critics and journalists. Watch out for The Three Musketeers, The Lost Treasure of And yet, there is something in how the stage is set but deeply unsatisfied, Charlotte has left her boyfriend in anger, the Knights Templar. in two tiny apartments, in the back and forth of this but she can’t seem to let him go. Now single, she can pick up upstairs-downstairs odd couple. — The Danish Film Institute is the national agency any guy she wants, but she drops them all again like so many responsible for supporting and encouraging film … and The Substitute, Island of Lost Souls, The Ugly Page 24-28 hot potatoes, in disgust or maybe self-loathing. The apartment and cinema culture. The Institute’s operations BY KIM SKOTTE extend from participation in the development Duckling, Jungo Goes Bananas and Der var engang en dreng downstairs from her is occupied by shy, withdrawn Veronica, and production of feature films, shorts and (English title to be announced). who likes to keep her exposure to daylight to an absolute documentaries, over distribution and marketing, Is this film a soap? It is in the way our curiosity is drawn to the minimum. Constantly teetering on the brink of suicide, to managing the national film archive and the Director Pernille Rosendahl cinematheque. The total budget of the DFI 2006 SHOOTING STAR Page 29 trough by the aroma of an exotic fate. In how it employs the Veronica makes ends meet by selling manifold sexual services. is DKK 395.8 m /­ EURO 53 m. This year’s Danish Shooting Star is Beate Bille who plays fictional cliff-hanger as a dramatic breakwater in a story awash On the surface, there is a world of difference between the two Subscriptions: [email protected] the female lead in Manslaughter. with human frailty and the fatal talent for repeating mistakes. tenants. Then, one day, there is a knock at the door. Perhaps We recognise these questions: What will she do now, then the similarities are greater than the differences in even the IN PRODUCTION Page 30 what will happen – in the next episode? The combo is tested oddest of pairings. DANISH FILM INSTITUTE Two of Denmark’s best known, most respected filmmakers and true: sex and emotions. The two main characters are Gothersgade 55 have new films in the pipeline. Lars von Trier is directing always fighting and making up again. So, yes, A Soap is a soap, TRANSSEXUAL MUSINGS DK-1123 Copenhagen K, DENMARK a comedy, The Boss of It All, and Ole Christian Madsen is though indisputably a singular specimen of the genre. Pernille Fischer Christensen, 35, graduated from the National T +45 3374 3400 directing a love story set in Prague. “We all carry around all these ideas about what true love Film School of Denmark in 1999. Before that, she studied art [email protected] /­ [email protected] Shooting Star: Beate Bille PAGE 4 / FILM#48 / COMPETITION / PERNILLE FISCHER CHRISTENSEN / A SOAP COMPETITION / PERNILLE FISCHER CHRISTENSEN / A SOAP / FILM#48 / PAGE 5 history and was at one stage into dance and music. The last is easy to hear in how music is used in A Soap. As a filmmaker, she first attracted attention with her award- winning short film Habibti My Love, a love story between adolescents in an immigrant milieu. Next, Fischer Christensen wrote the screenplay for a film about prostitutes. Though the project never got off the ground, her research did introduce her to a transsexual prostitute. “It was a really jarring experience for me to be sitting across from a person whose gender you can’t define. It started me thinking. Later, when the screenwriter Kim Fupz Aakeson contacted me after seeing my short film and suggested we collaborate, my curiosity about the whole landscape of transsexuality instantly sprang to mind. Here was something I really didn’t know how to deal with. I felt kind of helpless. All the usual gender strategies were suspended, and my curiosity was piqued by the idea of making a film with that as a premise.” Photo: Erik Molberg Hansen FIRST FILM FROM THE TALENT POOL “I’m fascinated by genres, but I’m not interested in simply reeling out a cookie-cutter film. I’m more interested in finding my own voice, in managing and transforming the genre,” the filmmaker says. A Soap is the first feature film to come out of the DFI’s New Danish Screen, a new Danish film-policy initiative with funds of around 3,5 million euros a year for promoting continued innovation in Danish films. A Soap has a total budget of 900,000 euros, and received 535,000 euros from New Danish Screen. According to Fischer Christensen, Photo: Lars Wahl that makes it the cheapest Danish feature film in 10 years. “There is nothing for me to hide behind in this film,” she Pernille Fischer Christensen says. “No car chases, no cool lighting, no fancy locations. Born 1969, Denmark. Graduated in direction from the National Film School Without my actors giving me their all, I have nothing. It’s dead. “Someone once said that trans­ of Denmark, 1999. Christenen’s graduation film India (1999) was recipient If I felt a scene wasn’t quite pure enough, we’d reshoot it the sexuals are closest to God. If God of Ciné Fondation’s 3rd Prize at Cannes. Her short fiction film, the critically next day, even if everybody else thought it was fine.” acclaimed Habibti My Love, was awarded at the Angers Premiers Plans festival in 2004.