SFI supports new Flinth epic and Lemhagen comedy
by Annika Pham
The Swedish Film Institute has awarded over €975,000 to Peter Flinth’s epic film Arn, The Knight Templar, currently in post-production, and €758,000 to Ella Lemhagen’s adoption comedy Patrik 1,5, which started shooting on July 30.
One of the most expensive Scandinavian films ever made (over €22m), and supported by the MEDIA Programme, Arn, the Knight Templar stars Stellan Skarsgård and three of his sons (including Gustaf), Vincent Perez and Simon Callow. The film, sold jointly by Sweden’s SF International and Germany’s Telepool, should be ready for Toronto or RomeFilmFest. SF will release it in Sweden next Christmas.
Lemhagen (Tsatsiki, Mum and the Policeman) is working on Patrik 1,5, a comedy based on Michael Drucker’s play of the same name, which the filmmaker adapted for the big screen. The story is that of a gay couple (Gustaf Skarsgård and Torkel Petersson) who has been granted the right to adopt a child. However, instead of the one-and-a-half year-old baby they were expecting, a 15 year-old homophobe with a criminal record shows up at their door.
Filmlance International is producing and domestic distribution will be handled by Sonet Film.
Three co-productions with Denmark were also supported by the SFI. Simon Staho’s Heart of Heaven, majority produced by Trollhättan Film AB in Sweden, was awarded €488,000. The film starring Mikael Persbrandt, Maria Lundqvist and Lena Endre is sold by Trust Film Sales.
Sören Kragh-Jacobsen’s new political thriller What No One Knows, produced by Denmark’s Nimbus Film in co-production with Sweden’s Hepp Film, was awarded €124,000. The film starring Maria Bonnevie and Anders W. Berthelsen will be distributed in Denmark by Filmfolket in January 2008. The Match Factory is handling world sales.
Pernille Fischer Christensen (A Soap [+see also:
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interview: Pernille Fischer Christensen
film profile]) was also granted €108,000 for her new drama Everybody’s Dancing, produced by Zentropa in co-production with Sweden’s Memfis Film, with Trust handling sales.
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