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Hailed by Variety as “a superb historical drama about the Far-Right’s threatto democracy, the movie “Quisling: The Final Days” helmed by Norway’s top filmmaker Erik Poppe, impressed audiences at the last Toronto Film Festival where it bowed as a Special Presentation.

At home the story of Norway’s infamous Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling, whose name has become a byword for traitor, stirred intense public debate and ended up as the third biggest Norwegian film of 2024. Now its long-form TV version, developed concurrently to the feature film by co-writers Anna Bach-Wiig and Siv Rajendram Eliassen, has a chance to nab the hefty $17,000 Nordic Series Script Award at Göteborg’s TV Drama Vision series showcase.

A penetrating and fascinating attempt to capture what goes on in the complex mind of an autocratic leader, “Quisling” is set at the end of WWII when the Norwegian head of state and Nazi collaborator...

Both a bold historical drama and a penetrating psychological study of a delusional authoritarian, “Quisling: The Final Days” is perhaps the strongest work yet from veteran Norwegian helmer Erik Poppe. It serves as a bookend of sorts to “The King’s Choice,” his 2016 hit, which dealt with the first three days of Germany’s invasion of Norway in 1940. Set five years later, “Quisling” revisits the period of occupation and its aftermath through the story of Vidkun Quisling (Gard B. Eidsvold), the wartime puppet head of government who collaborated with the Nazis, whose surname is now synonymous with the word traitor.

In a fresh and provocative approach to the titular subject matter, Poppe and his screenwriters view it through the lens of Quisling’s prison meetings with pastor Peder Olsen, whose mission from Oslo’s bishop is to lead Quisling toward contrition and absolution. Their conversations, noted in Olsen’s previously unknown diary of the time,...

One of Norway’s biggest export names, whose credits include Juliette Binoche starrer “1,000 Times Good Night” and Golden Bear nominee “Utøya- July 22,” director Erik Poppe will kick off the Norwegian Film Festival in Haugesund on Aug. 18, with his much-anticipated drama “Quisling – The Final Days,” ahead of the film’s international premiere at Toronto’s Special Presentations.

Although set in Norway during WWII, the film explores today’s pressing issue of the rise of right wing extremism and its threat to democracy.

It centres on the last days before his execution on Oct. 24, 1945, of the infamous Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling, whose name has become a byword for traitor. As Quisling sits in his dark cell, he receives the visit of the priest Peder Olsen. Their encounters – documented in a diary written by Olsen that served as a key source for the script – turn into a psychological battle between the humanist and the fascist.

Paris- based Urban Sales has hopped aboard Frida Kempff’s The Swedish Torpedo, a swimming drama set against the backdrop of the Second World War that is world premiering in Toronto’s Centrepiece section next month.

Set in the summer of 1939, the film is inspired by the true story of Sally Bauer, a Swedish single mother who wants to pursue her dream of becoming the first Scandinavian woman to swim across the English Channel amid pressure from society and her family who threaten to take her son away from her.

Josefin Neldén, whose recent roles include Ali Abbasi’s Border...

Momento Film, the leading Swedish banner founded by David Herdies (“Winter Buoy”) and Michael Krotkiewski (“Bellum — The Daemon Of War”), is boasting a slate of projects including the documentaries “Leaving Jesus” and “The Underdog,” as well as Simón Mesa Soto’s “A Poet.”

While at Cannes, the banner also started teasing one of its biggest project so far, “The Swedish Torpedo,” Frida Kempff (“Winter Buoy”)’s period film inspired by the life of Sally Bauer, the first Scandinavian to swim across the English Channel in 1939. “The Swedish Torpedo” will start shooting in August with a topnotch cast led by Josefin Neldén, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, as well as Lisa Carlehed (“The Emigrants”).

Co-produced by Sweden, Estonia, Belgium and England, the film opens in 1939, as Europe is on the brink of war. Sally, a 30-year-old single mom, dreams of being the first European woman to cross the English Channel. While society and...

Frida Kempff (“Winter Buoy”) is set to direct “The Swedish Torpedo,” a period film inspired by the life of Sally Bauer, the first Scandinavian to swim across the English Channel in 1939. The prominent Nordic cast is led by Josefin Neldén, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, as well as Lisa Carlehed (“The Emigrants”).

Produced by David Herdies and Erik Andersson at Momento Film, the film will start shooting in August in Sweden, Estonia, Belgium and England.

“Five years ago I didn’t know who Sally Bauer was and even less what she had achieved. Five days ahead of the outbreak of WWII she swam across the English Channel,” said Kempff I feel this is a story that needs to be told, about a woman who accomplished the impossible and shattered both social norms and world records.”

Neldén, who will play Bauer, said she feels “such a strong connection to Sally’s dreams, life and ambitions.

Norwegian director Erik Poppe takes on Vilhelm Moberg’s acclaimed series of novels in “The Emigrants,” his new historical drama about a struggling Swedish family which emigrates to the U.S. in 1849, searching for a better future.

“It’s probably the most classic work of literature in the whole Scandinavia,” he told Variety, taking about the 2022 Haugesund Festival winner ahead of its national premiere at the 50th Norwegian International Film Festival Haugesund.

Which is why, when approached to direct the film, he had only one reservation: He had to make it his own.

“Sf Studios tried to develop it for years, with another director, but they couldn’t quite crack it. I agreed to take over under the condition that I would be able to start all over again. Focusing on what I believed was the most interesting part: the story of Kristina and her husband Karl-Oskar, their kids and their escape.

Powerfully told story of 19th-century Swedish migrants takes its time, but delivers a fresh, honest take on their arduous path

This epic-scale adaptation of a series of novels by Vilhelm Moberg deserves its 148-minute running time, giving the plot enough space to cover a wide and deep tale of a Swedish community’s transition to the New World in the middle of the 19th century. You’d think this kind of coming-to-America story would by now be as exhausted as the poor soil that farmer Karl-Oskar Nilsson leaves behind in Scandinavia when he sets off looking for a better life with richer sod and less control from the Lutheran puritans. But like the fragile, dry apple-tree sapling Karl-Oskar’s wife Kristina (Lisa Carlehed) and his children bring with them on the long journey, this saga takes root and flourishes, thanks to thoughtful film-making and an especially fine performance from Carlehed,...

"We found it! We found our home." Signature Entertainment in the UK has revealed a new official trailer for The Emigrants, a Swedish drama adapted from a novel about Swedish immigrants moving to America in the 1800s. The film already opened last year in Sweden, and will be available to watch in the UK in August, but there's no US date yet. Perhaps because this one is about how America isn't exactly the "idyllic paradise promised" and land of dreams, especially for immigrants. And who in America wants to see a movie about that?! Ha. Based on the book by Vilhelm Moberg (published in 1949) depicting a few people emigrating from Sweden to the United States in the 1840 - early 1850. Starring Sofia Helin, Gustaf Skarsgard, Tove Lo, Lisa Carlehed, and Díana Bermudez. This is an epic trailer with that M83 song, plus all the sweeping Terrence Malick-esque cinematography. But it's...

Exclusive: Viaplay has lightened the tone of its originals slate with the greenlight of R.S.V.P., a Swedish romcom featuring The Emigrants star Lisa Carlehed as lead.

Airing later this year and based on award-winning Danish feature Long Story Short, the Nent streamer’s latest spans four years and is structured around nine chapters, each of which focuses on a different holiday celebration. At the center of the narrative is Klara (Carlehed), a 37-year-old single nurse whose perpetual search for love is increasingly causing her to question whether it even exists.

Miso Film, who last week revealed it had signed former Dr Head of Drama Christian Rank, is producing, award-winning Jordskott actor Moa Gammel is directing and Ella Lemhagen is writing.

Alongside Carlehed, who was recently nominated for Best Actress at Sweden’s Guldbagge Awards for Erik Poppe’s The Emigrants, the film features Oscar Töringe (Thin Blue Line...

Following its recent launch in the U.S., Nent has acquired domestic rights to Erik Poppe’s “The Emigrants” for its streamer Viaplay from REinvent International Sales.

Produced by Sf Studios, “The Emigrants” is a big-budget epic drama based on Vilhelm Moberg’s story about Swedes who left misery behind for a new life on the other side of the Atlantic in the mid-19th century. The film’s cast includes Lisa Carlehed (“In Your Arms”) and Gustaf Skarsgård (“438 days”), who star opposite Sofia Helin, Lena Strömdahl and Swedish pop sensation Tove Lo.

REinvent International Sales has also closed deals for former Yugoslavia (McF Megacom), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Film Europe) and Hungary (Vertigo).

Helene Aurø, REinvent sales and marketing director, pointed out that “The Emigrants” will be one of the first films shown by Viaplay’s newly launched US platform. “The film is just as relevant today as...

Haugesund’s New Nordic Films industry event will present 17 upcoming features.

Haugesund’s New Nordic Films industry event will present 17 upcoming features in its annual works in progress showcase.

The most high-profile film to show first footage will be Erik Poppe’s The Emigrants, produced by Sf Studios and the latest adaptation of the famed Vilhelm Moberg novels about a Swedish family that moves to America in the 1850s. The cast includes Lisa Carlehed, Gustaf Skarsgård, Tove Lo and Sofia Helin.

Further projects include Sagres, a Sweden-Finland-Belgium co-production sold by Totem Films. The debut feature from Stockholm-based Lovisa Siren...

Lionsgate’s Voyagers isn’t your ordinary “the human race is in danger” sci fi romp.

Written and directed by Neil Burger Voyagers follows a group of young men and women bred specifically to have a great level of intelligence and obedience as they embark on an expedition to colonize a distant planet.

Sounds like good, safe fun, right? Well, if it was it wouldn’t be a movie worth watching.

It doesn’t take long for the young group of what could be manufactured automatons to start to uncover disturbing secrets about the mission. As things begin to unravel, they defy their training and begin to explore their most primitive natures. As a result, the entire ship becomes chaos in space as they’re consumed by fear, lust, and the insatiable hunger for power.

Voyagers stars Tye Sheridan, Lily-Rose Depp, Fionn Whitehead, Chanté Adams, Isaac Hempstead Wright,...

Tagline: "Two Ways In - No Way Out." The Tunnel is a film from Norway. From Norwegian director Pål Øie (Villmark 2), this latest release focuses on an obstructed tunnel, in which a tanker trunk has been damaged. Now, everyone inside this cavern are forced to find a way out as time runs out. As well, The Tunnel stars: Thorbjørn Harr ("Vikings"), Ylva Lyng Fuglerud and Lisa Carlehed. The film's U.S. trailer and poster are here. A father is in search of his daughter, in this official trailer. Determined to find her, he will risk smoke and fire as oxygen wears out in this brutal traffic accident. As survivors dwindle, these first responders will have to risk everything to save others. Samuel Goldwyn Films will release The Tunnel this April. To show in some theatres and on Digital, The Tunnel brings a catastrophe to the screen April 9th. For fans of disaster titles,...

Though it will forever be associated with one brief mid-1970s heyday, the disaster-movie genre has made a stealth comeback in recent years, being a natural fit for a cinematic era dominated by CGI-laden action fantasies. Of course Hollywood has kept its hand in, with efforts like “San Andreas” and “Pompeii.” But there have also been parries as far afield as China, whose enjoyably ridiculous, volcano-centric “Skyfire” from late 2019 only reached the U.S. this year.

No country has been as assiduous in reviving that Charlton Heston spirit, however, as Norway — which has produced just three so far, but then that’s a not-inconsiderable share of its big-budget feature output in recent years. First there was the rockslide/avalanche/tsunami/flood whammy of 2015’s “The Wave,” then its self-explanatory 2018 sequel “The Quake.” Now there’s “The Tunnel,” unrelated to the aforementioned save that it obviously wouldn’t have been made...

"It's your own responsibility to get out." Samuel Goldwyn Films has debuted the official US trailer for the Norwegian disaster movie called The Tunnel, from Norwegian filmmaker Pål Øie. Not to be confused with the Norwegian sci-fi short film also called The Tunnel, this one is a real-life thriller similar to the 90s action blockbuster Daylight. When a tanker truck crashes inside a tunnel, people on their way home for Christmas are brutally trapped in a deadly fire. With a blizzard raging outside, and the first responders struggling to get to the accident, it's every man for himself. Will the help get there in time? Starring Thorbjørn Harr, Ylva Lyng Fuglerud, Lisa Carlehed, Mikkel Bratt Silset, Peter Førde, Daniel Alexander Skadal, and Per Egil Aske. This orignially opened in theaters in Norway in 2019, and is just now finally getting a VOD release in the US starting this April. Might be...

Other deals include for Erik Poppe’s The Emigrants and Bille August’s The Pact.

Rikke Ennis’ Danish outfit REinvent has closed a string of deals on its slate of upcoming films at the EFM.

They include Aku Louhimies’ Finnish action thriller Omerta 6/12, which has sold to Spain (A Contracorriente). Filming is underway on the feature, which will be delivered by the end of the year, while a four-part series version of the project is also being readied for mid-2022.

The story is based on Ilkka Remes’ best-selling novel 6/12, about a hostage crisis that occurs on Finland’s Independence Day.

“Cop Secret,” “Margrete – Queen of the North” and “The Emigrants” are among 12 wide-ranging projects set to be presented at a virtual Nordic Film Market, Scandinavia’s biggest industry showcase which runs alongside the Goteborg Film Festival.

“Cop Secret,” directed by Icelandic gaolkeeper turned filmmaker Hannes Þór Halldórsson, is an action comedy following a tough cop who in denial about his sexuality and falls in love with his new partner while investigating a litany of bank robberies. The movie is being produced by Lilja Ósk Snorradóttir at Icelandic banner Pegasus and started shooting in September.

Both “Margrete – Queen of the North” and “The Emigrants” are highly anticipated historical dramas produced by Sf Studios and represented in international markets by REinvent.

“Margrete – Queen of the North” is directed by Charlotte Sieling, the acclaimed Danish director of “The Killing” and “The Bridge,” among others. The movie is set in 1402 and stars Trine Dyrholm...

Erik Poppe to direct $9.3m period drama.

Erik Poppe’s period drama The Emigrants is relocating production from the Czech Republic to Sweden and has recast a key role as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Swedish production, which has a budget of €8.5m ($10m), was initially scheduled to film this year in the Czech Republic. But the large-scale adaptation of Vilhelm Moberg’s classic novel will now take place in the Swedish region of Västra Götaland, with filming mainly taking place in the surrounding areas of Alingsås and Munkedal. Shooting will begin this week and continue for the next seven weeks.

Erik Poppe to direct $9.3m period drama.

Upcoming period drama ‘The Emigrants’ is to relocate shooting from the Czech Republic to Sweden and has recast a key role as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Swedish production, which has a budget of €8.5m ($10m), was initially scheduled to film this year in the Czech Republic, directed by Erik Poppe (Utøya: July 22).

But the large-scale adaptation of Vilhelm Moberg’s classic novel will now take place in the Swedish region of Västra Götaland, with filming mainly taking place in the surrounding areas of Alingsås and Munkedal. Shooting will begin this...

In today’s Global Bulletin, the BBC picks up Awkwafina’s latest series, Tove Lo preps her acting debut, HBO Nordics and Australia’s ABC make executive hires, Conecta Fiction Reboot and Mip Cancun share details for their updated events, and Banijay closes a first-look deal with U.K. production company Nineteen11.

Acquisition

BBC Three has picked up comedy series “Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens” from ViacomCBS International Studios and will make it available to stream exclusively on BBC iPlayer in the U.K. later this year.

The 10-part series stars the popular actor-rapper Awkwafina, a Golden Globe winner for her work in “The Farewell,” and is based on her own real-life story growing up in Queens, New York. It co-stars “SNL” alum Bowen Yang, Bd Wong (“Mr Robot”) and Lori Tann Chinn (“Orange is the New Black”).

Lucia Aniello, Natasha Lyonne and Steven K. Tsuchida direct the series, produced...

Exclusive: Los Angeles-based Swedish singer songwriter Tove Lo has been cast for her acting debut in The Emigrants, the $10M Scandi epic from local major Sf Studios.

Erik Poppe (Utøya: July 22) is helming the adaptation of Vilhelm Moberg’s classic novels which chronicle the one and a half million Swedes who sought a better life across the Atlantic in the mid-19th century. Production is scheduled to get underway in the Western part of Sweden in September.

One of Sweden’s biggest musical exports, Tove Lo’s hit singles include Habits (Stay High), which reached number three on the U.S. Billboard chart and has had close to 700 million streams on Spotify and Youtube, while she has also co-written songs including Lorde’s Homemade Dynamite and Ellie Goulding’s Love Me Like You Do, which was on the Fifty Shades Of Grey soundtrack and was Grammy and Golden Globe nominated.

"You are saying Elise is in the tunnel?" Signature Ent. has released an official UK trailer for the Norwegian action survival thriller called The Tunnel, originally titled Tunnelen in Norwegian. The Norwegian movie industry seems to be going through every 90s disaster movie trope - now they're remaking Daylight. When a truck crashes inside a tunnel, people on their way home for Christmas are brutally trapped in a deadly fire. With a blizzard raging outside, and the first responders struggling to get to the accident, it's every man for himself. Starring Thorbjørn Harr, Ylva Lyng Fuglerud, Lisa Carlehed, Mikkel Bratt Silset, Peter Førde, Daniel Alexander Skadal, and Per Egil Aske. This actually looks legit - at least the opening act. As for the rest of what happens once they're stuck, you'll have to watch to find out who makes it out safely. Here's the new UK trailer (+ original Norwegian poster...

Sf Studios’ period epic set to begin production in September.

Lisa Carlehed and Gustaf Skarsgård have signed on to play the leading roles in Sf Studios’ period drama The Emigrants.

Directed by Norwegian filmmaker Erik Poppe (Utøya: July 22), the adaptation of Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg’s popular classic will begin production in September in the western part of Sweden.

The cast also includes Liv Ullmann – who previously starred in Jan Troell’s Oscar-nominated 1971 version of the story opposite Max von Sydow – and Sofia Helin.

The screenplay has been written by Siv Rajendram Eliassen and Anne Bache-Wiig, and the film will...

Norwegian filmmaker Erik Poppe has set cast for his upcoming feature adaptation of Vilhelm Moberg’s classic Swedish tale The Emigrants, which is aiming to shoot in Sweden from September.

Lisa Carlehed, who was nominated for a prestigious Bodil Award this year for her role in Until We Fall, will star alongside Gustav Skarsgård. Also cast are The Bridge star Sofia Helin, and Liv Ullmann, the filmmaker and actress who appeared in the 1971 Oscar-nominated adaptation of The Emigrants alongside Max Von Sydow.

Ullman played female lead Kristina in the original film and will this time play her mother Anna, with Carlehed as Kristina, while Skarsgård will play Karl-Oskar. The epic story chronicles the one and a half million Swedes who sought a better life across the Atlantic.

The Emigrants is produced by Sf Studios, which will also distribute in the Nordics and is aiming for a...

As the 23rd edition of the Estonian festival wrapped, Japan’s Kontora nabbed the Grand Prix, with Filipino filmmaker Jun Robles Lana named Best Director. Asian cinema turned out to be the clear winner at the 23rd Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, with this year’s Grand Prix for Best Film going to Indian-born Anshul Chauhan’s Kontora. As the Official Selection Competition jury, consisting of Michael Newell, Italian composer Pivio, Fabrizio Maltese, Lisa Carlehed, Kerem Ayan and Rima Das argued, the movie tells “a powerful, mysterious story that links modern Japanese lives with a past that the characters of the film think has been buried and forgotten, but which rises up to haunt and obsess them. It’s also a rich portrait of an ordinary Japanese family under severe tensions. Full of unexpected, disturbing images,...

Juries announced for the 23rd Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

Donnie Brasco director Mike Newell is to preside over the official selection at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Nov 15-Dec 1).

The UK filmmaker behind Four Weddings And A Funeral and Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire will be joined by Danish actress Lisa Carlehed, Italian composer Pivio, Indian director Rima Das, Italian director and cinematographer Fabrizio Maltese and Istanbul Film Festival director Kerem Ayan.

Together, the jury will consider the 21 films in official selection and hand out prizes for best film, director, script, actress, actor, cinematographer and music.

Danish filmmaker Grahtø’s feature debut stars Lisa Carlehed and Victoria Carmen Sonne.

Us sales and distribution company Princ Films has acquired world sales rights on Danish filmmaker Marie Grahtø’s feature debutPsychosia ahead of its official premiere in Venice Critics’ Week on Wednesday (Sept 4).

The psychological drama stars Lisa Carlehed as an uptight researcher specialised in the field of suicide, opposite Victoria Carmen Sonne as a suicidal psychiatric patient she is treating. The pair form a strong bond but as they get closer it becomes clear that something is not as it seems.

The film was produced by Amalie...

The film is based on a real-life tanker collision incident.

TrustNordisk has closed a number of deals on its Norwegian disaster thriller The Tunnel.

The film has now sold to Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland (SquareOne), Mexico and Latin America (Califorinia Filmes), Korea (Activers Entertainment), China (Dd Dream), Malaysia and Philippines (Cm Holdings), and Bulgaria (bTV). TrustNordisk will show first footage of the film in its promo reel screening tomorrow (May 15).

Pål Øie directs based on a script by Kjersti Helen Rasmussen. Based on a real-life incident, the story follows what happens when a tanker truck collides and catches on fire in a tunnel.

Hope, Emily Dickinson told us, is the thing with feathers. Despair, according to Samanou Acheche Sahlstrøm’s savagely convincing, brilliantly performed “Until We Fall,” is a thing with fangs and fists.

Dropping us into the lives of Danish couple Adam (Dar Salim) and Louise (Lisa Carlehed) as they return to the place from where their son Lucas went missing some time before — a seaside town in the Canary Islands where they have a holiday apartment handed down by Louise’s grandparents — Sahlstrøm’s frighteningly mature, gripping second feature is an uncompromising portrait of the pitiless derangement of grief. How it slowly dislocates you from everyone around and most dramatically, from yourself, from the person you used to be, and the way you usually behaved. As Louise says snappishly when Adam remarks on some little change to her routine: “There is no ‘usually’ anymore.”

Insights like these punctuate Sahlstrøm’s economical,...

The film will shoot for six weeks on location at Psychiatric Center Sankt Hans, in Roskilde near Copenhagen.

Trine Dyrholm has joined the cast of Danish director Marie Grahtø’s debut feature Teenage Jesus, which started shooting last week.

The drama is set in a psych ward. The cast is led by Lisa Carlehed (In Your Arms) as a perfectionist young psychologist and Victoria Carmen Sonne (Holiday) as her suicidal patient. Through an intense psychological war, the two women form a complicated and intimate bond. Dyrholm plays a fellow doctor.

The film will shoot for six weeks on location at Psychiatric Center Sankt Hans,...