A portrait of a woman who stopped eating 20 years ago

Norwegian photographer-artist Lene Marie Fossen and her life with anorexia will be the subject of The Self Portrait (Selvportrettet), a feature-length theatrical documentary backed by the Norwegian Film Institute, which has also chipped in for another documentary and eight short films.

The institute will contribute €173,000 (NOK 1,65 million) to the €432,000 (NOK 4,13 million) Speranza Film project, which will be scripted and produced by Norwegian veteran documentarist Margreth Olin and directed by Katja Høgseth, who will shortly launch her first major documentary project , Fengslet og forlatt (English title tbd).

Stopped eating at ten

 “Raw, naked, honest – you have never seen a self portrait like this. Fossen stopped eating when she was 10 years old: she didn’t want to grow up. 20 years later she still doesn’t eat – for 18 years she evaded help from the Norwegian Health Care system, but now she has realised she has to change to control her disease,” said Olin.

 “Her days are divided into four – four nutritional drinks – and work, the work of an artist. She is a unique talent in the world of photography, facing an international breakthrough. She is self-taught, and her knack for dramaturgi and ability to read the light make her photography stand out.

“Her first solo exhibition will soon open, consisting entirely of self portraits. Our film will document Lene’s struggle. Her parents are by her side, exhausted, but hopeful. Time is running out. Lene’s sensitivity made her ill, but will it also save her? Her photos give us a unique insight into her situation,” Olin concluded her introduction to The Self Portrait, which is scheduled for a 25 November 2019 premiere.

Olin will co-direct the film, and so will photographer and teacher of photography Espen Wallin, who has worked with Fossen for eight years. ”It is a complex and strong story with a clear theme and vision from the directors, which forces audiences to reflect. I am looking forward to a work which will be difficult to shake off,”  declared documentary film consultant Helle Hansen, of the Norwegian Film Institute.

New documentary 

Another documentary will be subsidised by the institute:

The Chocolate War

Dir/scr: Miki Mistrati. Prods: Helle Faber, for Made in Copenhagen (Denmark); Jonathan Borge Lie, for UpNorth Film (Norway). (Support: €55,467/NOK 530,000).

The American lawyer Terrence Collingsworth has devoted his life to fight companies like Nestlé, which systematically exploits child labour in its production of chocolate. With six witnesses from Mali, whom he met 11 years ago, he has now sufficient information to try the case in San Francisco or Los Angeles. Danish director-writer Miki Mistrati has for more than 10 years researched the abuse of children in the labour market in several countries.

Eight shortfilms

And eight short films were backed by €487,000 (NOK 4,6 million) production funding:

Frydenlund Hair Saloon (temp. title)

(Frisørsalongen på Frydenlund). Dir/scr: Hanne Berkaak. Prods: Lise Fearnley, Tonje Skar Reiersen, for Mikrofilm. (Support: €219,780/NOK 2.1 million). An animated short based on the director’s own family history, follows five siblings whose hairdressing salon in Narvik up north offers offers a corner of normality to the local women during the madness of war.

Min kjære (My Beloved)

Dir/scr: Tommy Næss. Prod: Ina Loven Borlaug, for Filmselskapet. (€68,025/NOK 650,000). Ella and Alf visit their 15-year-old daughter Sara in the youth prison, where she is waiting for her conviction for homicide. Ella’s greatest wish is to give Sara a hug.

Grusomheten (Cruelty)

Dir/scr/prod: Itonje Søimer Guttormsen, for Andropia. (€62,793/NOK 600,000) The second short in Guttormsen’s planned trilogy about Gritt, a motion artist fighting to find a home for herself and her way of expression, who goes through a process of radicalisation for the sake of art.

Da du dro (When you left)

Dir/scr: Emilie K Beck. Prod: Synne Seltveit, for Storm Films). (€40,082/NOK 383,000). Agathe suddenly meets her elder sister Kaya at the local store, after Kaya has been missing for several months. Runited, they must now learn to live with the consequences of the choices they have made.

Ingenmsannsland (No man's land)

Dir/scr/prod: Ali Parandian, for Anicca Pictures. (€31,396/NOK 300,000). Carlos, Erffan and Amir - three Oslo boys in their early 20s – are on their way to a party, when Carlos suffers an indisposition, loses pulse and consciousness and stops breathing. Erffan and Amir call for help.

På kjøtt og blod (Tagalong)

Dir/scr/prod: Vibeke Heide, for Sentimeter Film.  (€29,303/NOK 280,000). 11-year-old Liv wants to hang out with her five-year-older cousin and his black metal gang in this portrayal of “power, devotion, feeling outside and ideas which are wonderful in their meaninglessness.” 

Half Dog

Dir/scr: Kardo Mansur. Prods: Hisham Zaman Mathis Ståle Mathisen, Mansur, for Snowfall Cinema.  

(€20,931/NOK 200,000). 19-year-old Zeikhun is under surveillance at an isolated military camp in Russia. He gets time off to participate in a family wedding, but at home there is another war waiting.

Show Me Your Original Face before Your Mother and Father Were Born

Dir/scr/prod: Lilja Ingolfsdottir, for Ingofilm. (€14,233/NOK 136,000). An empty chair in a studio with natural lift. Grown-up people – both sexes, different ages – sit down and are asked to say a sentence they have not been told on beforehand. Difficult?

- 52 projects with a great variety in both genre and themes applied for support, and I look forward to following the eight we selected. The quality of Norwegian shorts is currently very strong – they deserve a large audience, added short film consultant Tone Johnsen, of the Norwegian Film Institute.