Norwegian Hope and coproduction Charter gets Eurimages support

Norwegian director Maria Sødahl, who is preparing to shoot her second feature, Hope, has received €0.5 million support from Eurimages, the Council of Europe’s co-production film fund. Starring Andrea Bræin Hovig and Stellan Skarsgård, the €2.9 million drama will be produced by Thomas Robsahm and Yngve Sæther for Oslo’s Motlys.

Charter

Eurimages has also chipped in €475,000 for Swedish director Amanda Kernell’s Charter, staged by Lars G Lindström for Nordisk Film Production Sverige, with ao Aage Aaberge for Nordisk Film Production Norge. Also scripted by Kernell, the €3.8 million feature follows a 40-year-old mother who kidnaps her own children.

Hope 

Sødahl, whose feature debut Limbo (2010) won her top festival prizes in Montreal, Clermont Ferrand and Trondheim, adding five Amanda statuettes – Norway’s national film award – has also written her sophomore work, which will go into production in mid-January 2019 for local release during the autumn.

Anja - a young woman in the midst of a successful career - is told on Christmas Eve that she is suffering from a life-threatening cancer. With her husband Tomas, their three children, three stepchildren and her father she is thrown into a turbulent Christmas week, revealing an ailing relationship and putting a love story in focus.

Real-life story about cancer 

The film is based on a real-life story – Sødahl was herself diagnosed with cancer six years ago. The Norwegian Film Institute has contributed €1.2 million production funding to the budget; Hope will be distributed in the Nordic countries by SF Studios and sold internationally by TrustNordisk.

 “In recent years movies based on woman filmmakers’ own experience and opinion content have been increasingly in demand. sought after in recent years. The statistics also show clearly that a majority of the films made today are based on a male reality,” observed the institute’s feature film consultant Silje Riise Næss.

 Over half of the audience

“Still women not only make up half of the Norwegian community, but actually over half of the Norwegian culture audiences. Hope is a movie that answers these bias, but first and foremost it is a movie you will never forget.” – Riise Næss is also the Norwegian representative of Eurimages.