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01.11.2006
New Norwegian film from Hamer and Gaarder
Norwegian director Bent Hamer portrays a former engine driver, now old-age pensioner in O’Horten, while Axel Helgeland is packaging a feature from Jostein Gaarder’s Appelsinpiken (The Orange Girl) for Eva Dahr to direct
Source: Nordic Film &TV Fund Publisert: 01.11.06 | Sist endret: 02.11.06
 | Director/producer Bent Hamer |
After a US digression filming Factotum from Charles Bukowski’s novel with an international cast, Norwegian director Bent Hamer is back on home turf to portray a former engine driver in O’Horten, his fifth feature, which the Norwegian Film Fund last week (Monday, 23 October) gave NOK 11 million production support.
”As the train leaves the station without engine driver Odd Horten on board, he realises that his future is a voyage without printed timetables and well-known stops. Horten has become an old-age pensioner, and the platform is no longer a safe place to be,” is how Hamer describes his lead character. ”This will be a film which is both sad and very funny,” explained film consultant Nikolaj Frobenius.
Three of Hamer’s previous films, including Factotum, have been selected for Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes. As is his habit, he will write, direct and produce O’Horten for his own BulBul Film. He and Factotum cinematographer John Christian Rosenlund will commence principal photography for the NOK 20 million production on Monday, 29 January, heading for a local première during Christmas.
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Appelsinpiken (The Orange Girl) – the latest novel by Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder, whose Sofies verden (Sophie’s World) was published in 45 languages to become the world’s best-selling fiction book in 1995, is on the way to the screen.
Norwegian producer Axel Helgeland, of Helgeland Film, has received the maximum €50,000 development support from the Media+ programme, another NOK 200,000 from the Norwegian Film Fund, and signed Norwegian director Eva Dahr, who is currently in post with her new feature, Mars and Venus, to direct. Sandrew Metronome has purchased Nordic rights for the €3 million film, shooting from Helgeland and Andreas Markusson’s screenplay, which is scheduled for a 2008 release.
”It is a warm and beautiful story about living and having the courage to love,” said Helgeland of Appelsinpiken, a love story spanning over two generations and Gaarder’s most successful novel since Sofie, so far translated into 38 languages.
On his 18th birthday, Georg receives a letter from his father, whom he hardly remembers, as he was four when he died. The father writes about the mysterious Appelsinpiken, a girl carrying a paper bag with oranges, whom he sees for the first time in a tramcar 1982. He sets out to find her, which he does, only to see her disappear again. His search ends in Sevilla, under the orange trees. In the letter he asks Georg a basic question, to which Georg knows he must find his own personal answer.
Published in 1991, Sofies verden was Norway’s number one bestseller for three years running. It was filmed in 1999 by Norwegian director Erik Gustavson for Norwegian pubcaster NRK Drama, in collaboration with Filmkameratene and SF Norge. Appelsinpiken will be the first feature from Helgeland Film, set up by the former ceo of Norsk Film A/S and producer at Norway’s Nordisk Film Production. Credited with such films as Jeg er Dina (I Am Dina), Helgeland co-produced current local blockbuster, Roar Uthaug’s Fritt vilt (Cold Prey).
A News Item from Nordic Film & TV Fund.
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