Two Norwegian film projects, Joachim Roenning-Espen Sandberg’s Kon-Tiki and Petter Næss’ Comrade, have been backed by Eurimages - the Council of Europe's co-production fund – which gave them €500,000 (NOK 3.9 million) and €250,000 (NOK 2 million) top financing, respectively.
”Competition was tough,” said Norwegian Eurimages representative, Nils Klevjer Aas, senior adviser at the Norwegian Film Institute. Half of the applicants – 16 out of 33 – were rewarded.
Kon-Tiki was the name of the wooden raft Thor Heyerdahl and five fellow scientists used in 1947 for a 101-day journey from South America to the Polynesian Islands. In 1950 the 8,000-kilometre voyage was turned into an Oscar-winning documentary by Heyerdahl himself.
Scripted by Peter Skavlan (Sofie’s World/Sofies verden), the so far most expensive Norwegian feature (NOK 63 million/€8.1 million) will be produced by Norway’s Nordisk Film Production, with Denmark’s Nordisk, Sweden’s Filmlance and UK’s Recorded Picture Company.
Comrade is based on a true story from World War 2 when an English and a German combat aircraft forced each other to crash-land in the mountains up north. Two unarmed English and three armed German pilots found shelter in the same cottage.
Scripted by Ole Meldgaard, Dave Mango and Næss, with a cast including Rupert Grint (Harry Potter), Florian Lukas (Goodbye Lenin), David Cross (The Reader) and Stig Henrik Hoff, the film will be produced by Zentropa International Norway and Sweden’s Trolhättan Film.