Norway’s Mission to the Moon will take a detour to Berlin

Norwegian director Rasmus A Sivertsen’s Louis & Luca – Mission to the Moon (Månelyst i Flåklypa) has been selected for the Children’s Film Fest at the Berlin International Film Festival, which takes place between 7-17 February. In Berlin Sivertsen, who has three times won the Amanda – Norway’s national film prize – for his kidpics, will compete in the Generation Kplus section.

World-class films

”We are very pleased that the third Pinchcliffe movie has also reached Berlin’s Generation programme, which is considered the most important children’s film festival in the world,” said Stine Helgeland, head of Communication, Insight and International Relations at the Norwegian Film Institute.

”It shows that our distinctive Norwegian stories have general appeal, and that we are able to create world-class animated films that reach a wide audience both in Norway and abroad,” said Helgeland.

From Pinchcliffe to the moon

Last year the fourth most-view most popular films in the local cinemas and Sivertsen’s second Berlinale entry from Norwegian author Kjell Aukrust’s Pinchcliffe universe (after Louis & Nolan – The Big Cheese Race/Solan og Ludvig - Herfra til Flåklypa/Generation Kplus 2016), the Synnøve Hørsdal and Cornelia Boysen production for Maipo Film scripted by Karsten Fullu follows a Pinchcliffe mission to the moon.

The last film in the stop-motion trilogy joins the expedition in the international race to the moon led by Reodor the Inventor, with Louis the Magpie as the astronaut and his friend Luca the Hedgehog – quite a trip, but what could go wrong? But on the way they are in for a some surprises - with secret passengers and hidden agendas, nothing seems to go right after the plan.

Norway in Focus

Norwegian children’s films are frequent performers at the Berlin festival, which is this year organised for the 69th time – last year Norwegian director Christian Lo’s Los Bando was competing in Generation Kplus, and it went on to win six awards on the international circuit. Norwegian director Arild Andresen’s The Liverpool Goalie (Keeper’n til Liverpool) received the Crystal Bear top prize in 2011.

This year in Berlin Norway is the Country in Focus at the European Film Market, and it will later be guest country at the jazzahead! Festival and Market in Bremen (13-28 April), and the Frankfurter Buchmesse (16-20 October), the world’s biggest trade fair for books. 

It has previously been announced that Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland’s 11th feature, Out Stealing Horses (Ut og stjæle hester), will have its world premiere on 9 February in the festival’s main competition, and for the first time a Norwegian film classic has been included in the programme: Norwegian director Edith Carlmars The Wayward Girl (Ung flukt/1959), starring Liv Ullmann.