Copenhagen-based TrustNordisk has picked up international rights on “My Brother,” a four-part mystery thriller produced by Banijay Group’s Swedish banner Filmlance International, credited for the crime hits “The Bridge”, “Fallen”, and family epic “Ronja the Robber’s Daughter.” Filming on the Svt series is due to begin in February 2025 in Norrbotten, Sweden’s northernmost county, with a delivery date set for the winter 2025.

Billed as a northern Western, “My Brother” is based on bestselling author Karin Smirnoff’s debut novel, part of the Jana Kippo book trilogy sold to several countries including the U.K., Italy and Germany. Smirnoff has also authored the new Millennium novel “The Cry of the Sea Eagle.”

Filmlance’s newest bet on crime is adapted by seasoned screenwriter Karin Arrhenius, with Sanna Lenken directing.

“We are eager to introduce the deeply emotional and gripping story,” said Susan Wendt, TrustNordisk managing director. “Not only does it...

Jon Blåhed found a timely story in 1930s period drama “Raptures.”

“Some of these things happen today as well,” he says.

Inspired by the so-called “Korpela Movement” – a controversial religious sect that first emerged in Northern Sweden and was later known for its apocalyptic beliefs and unorthodox rituals, as well as sexual practices – he wasn’t looking to spread gossip.

“It wasn’t just about taking the juiciest stories, but staying true to what I thought was important. I grew up in that region. I’m a son of the village preacher and I’ve heard whispers about this movement when I was a kid. It always felt a bit wrong, like something you weren’t supposed to discuss.”

Later in life, Blåhed found himself questioning religious dogmas.

“I was forced to go to church as a kid, and I didn’t like it. It was weird, hearing your own...

Exclusive: Picture Tree International (Pti) has boarded sales on religious cult drama Raptures (Rörelser) about the notorious real-life Korpela Movement which took hold in the remote Torne Valley on the border of Sweden and Finland in the 1930s.

Written and directed by Swedish filmmaker Jon Blåhed, the film is inspired by true events captured in the novel Dagning; röd! by award-winning minority Meänkieli language author Bengt Pohjanen.

The drama, which is currently in the second half of its shoot in northern Finland and Sweden, will be the first feature shot in Meänkieli, which is spoken by some 70,000 people in the Torne Valley but was suppressed by the Swedish state for decades.

Blåhed took further inspiration from his own family history connected to the strict Læstadian movement in the Torne Valley region where he grew up.

The drama revolves around Rakel, a devout Christian believer whose husband Teodor forms a liberal...

Tove director Zaida Bergroth: “We had a wonderful production designer [Catharina Nyqvist Ehrnrooth] who studied every little detail and she was able to build this wonderful place for us.” Photo: Sami Kuokkanen

Zaida Bergroth’s Tove (Finland’s 2021 Oscar submission), screenplay by Eeva Putro, stars Alma Pöysti (Xavier Picard and Hanna Hemilä’s Moomins On The Riviera) as Tove Jansson, the creator of Moomins and Krista Kosonen (in Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 with Carla Juri and in Bergroth’s Miami) as theatre director Vivica Bandler with Shanti Roney, Joanna Haartti, Robert Enckell, Kajsa Ernst, Jakob Öhrman, Eeva Putro, Liisi Tandefelt, Wilhelm Enckell.

During our conversation Zaida brings up a scene in Tove that she calls Aki Kaurismaki’s Paris, I remark that Lars von Trier’s Melancholia may have been influenced by the Moomins, and Alma Pöysti is quoted as saying “we are Moomin-marinated children.” We also...

Biographical film about Sergei Eisenstein was Golden Bear nominated last year.

Independent British distributor Axiom Films has set an April 15 UK theatrical release for Peter Greenaway’s Golden Bear-nominated film about revered Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein.

Eisenstein In Guanajuato chronicles the director travelling to Guanajuato in Mexico in 1931 to shoot his feature Que Viva Mexico. While there, he falls in love with his guide.

Elmer Bäck (Where Once We Walked) stars as Eisenstein, alongside Luis Alberti (The Golden Dream) and Maya Zapata (Bordertown).

Lisa Owen, Stelio Savante, Rasmus Slatis & Jakob Öhrman are also among the cast.

Strand Releasing handled the title’s Us theatrical, which began on Feb 5.

The film premiered at the Berlinale in 2015 where Greenaway was nominated for a Golden Bear.

Peter Greenaway’s Eisenstein In Guanajuato will have its world premiere in competition here in Berlin on Wednesday. The Pillow Book and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover helmer’s latest is set in 1931 and follows Battleship Potemkin director Sergei Eisenstein as he travels to Mexico to shoot Que Viva Mexico. Freshly rejected by Hollywood and under increasing pressure to return to Stalinist Russia, Eisenstein encounters a new culture and its dealings with death; he also discovers another revolution — and his own body. Elmer Bäck plays Eisenstein with Stelio Savante, Luis Alberti, Maya Zapata, Lisa Owen, Rasmus Slätis and Jakob Öhrman also in the cast. Films Boutique is selling at the Efm. Check out the trailer above.

Peter Greenaway's new film "Eisenstein In Guanajuato," starring Elmer Bäck, Luis Alberti, Maya Zapata, Lisa Owen, Stelio Savante, Rasmus Slätis, and Jakob Öhrman, will be making its world premiere at the 65th Berlinale on February 11, 2015.

The film is a Netherlands-Mexico-Finland-Belgium co-production from Submarine, Fu Works, Paloma Negra Films, Edith Film, Potemkino, and Mollywood.

The official synopsis is below:

In 1931, at the height of his artistic powers, Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein travels to Mexico to shoot a new film to be titled "Que Viva Mexico." Freshly rejected by Hollywood and under increasing pressure to return to Stalinist Russia, Eisenstein arrives at the city of Guanajuato. Chaperoned by his guide Palomino Cañedo, he vulnerably experiences the ties between Eros and Thanatos, sex and death, happy to create their effects in cinema, troubled to suffer them in life.

Peter Greenaway’s film explores the mind of a creative genius facing the desires and fears of love, sex and death through ten passionate days that helped shape the rest of the career of one of the greatest masters of Cinema.

Premiere Screening:

Wednesday, Feb 11 19:00 Berlinale Palast

Here is the official poster...

Peter Greenaway, director of The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, is debuting his latest film about legendary Director Sergei Eisenstein at the 65th Annual Berlinale, or the Berlin International Film Festival.

Eisenstein in Guanajuato joins Terrence Malick’s Knight of Cups and Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Look of Silence among the slate of films at 2015′s festival.

Eisenstein was the Russian born director of the silent masterpiece Battleship Potemkin among other classics such as Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible, Parts I and II. In 1932, Eisenstein released ¡Que viva Mexico!, for which he traveled to Guanajuato, Mexico and experienced desires of love, sex and death that shaped the rest of his career following his early Russian successes.

Here’s the full synopsis of the film, via a press release:

In 1931, at the height of his artistic powers, Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein travels to Mexico to shoot a new...