Norsk filminstitutt

‘Norway’s Mark Zuckerberg’ is arrested by the FBI and sentenced to 11 years in a US prison. How did the young entrepreneur and media darling end up there and who are all the people that fell for his scams?


What makes a young boy lie about almost everything, and how comes he manages to convince almost everybody he meets? Norwegian-Pakistani Waleed Ahmed (25) is a charismatic young man who mesmerized the national and international business community. He was hailed as an exceptionally promising entrepreneur and brought into the royal family’s circle of influential friends. How did sweet Waleed end up as the “Bieber fraudster” in a U.S. federal prison?

Production and distribution

Production Year:
2021
Production country:
Norway
Release date (national):
2021-06-11
Release date (international):
2021-04-29
Production company:
Motlys A/S
Financing company:
Norwegian Film Institute
Executive producer:
Esther van Messel
Espen Osmundsen
Producer:
Thomas Robsahm
Nicolai Moland
Film consultant:
Helle Hansen
Sales agent:
First Hand Films

Director

  • Emil Trier

    EMIL TRIER (b. 1981) is an international award-winning director, known for his documentaries The Other Munch (2018), The Norwegian Solution (2009) and Board Control (2006). His short fiction film High Point (2014) is a hybrid project and incorporates elements of documentary. Trier also directed the TORGNY music video trilogy about Norwegian youth culture: The Only Game, Big Day, and I Came Here (2011). The project received the award for best Scandinavian music video at the BIFF festival in Bergen, Norway. He graduated from the European Film College in Denmark and has a Bachelor in Film and Aesthetics from The University of Oslo.  

    Emil Trier

Festivals

2021:
CPH:DOX
2021:
Oslo Pix
2021:
Atlàntida Mallorca Film Festival
2021:
Warsaw International Film Festival
2021:
Nordic Film Days Lübeck
2022:
TIFF - Tromsø International Film Festival
2022:
DocPoint - Helsinki Documentary Film Festival
2022:
DocPoint Tallinn Documentary Film Festival
2022:
Nòt Film Fest

Crew

Director:
Emil Trier
Cinematographer:
Petter Holmern Halvorsen
Editor:
Jens Christian Fodstad
Christian Siebenhertz
Composer:
Johannes Ringen
Sound Design:
Gisle Tveito

Technical information

Format:
DCP 2k
Screen ratio:
1:2,39
Colour:
Colour
Length in min's:
95'
Language:
Norwegian
English
Subtitles:
English

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