“The Killing” series and “Margrete – Queen of the North” helmer Charlotte Sieling has shared exclusive access tothe trailer of her fourth feature, “Way Home,” with PvNew. The film will open Haugesund’s market, New Nordic Films, on Aug. 20.
LevelK handles world sales on the drama produced by top Danish outfit Toolbox Films (“Shorta,” “Daniel”).
The clip captures the tense and emotional story of a Danish father (Nikolaj Lie Kaas from “Britannia” and “Riders of Justice”) on a dangerous mission in war-torn Syria as he desperately tries to find his son Adam, aka ISIS fighter Abu Shahib. The question is, can he convince him to come home to Denmark, or is it too late?
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“It’s a father and son story, ultimately about accepting our children for who they are and letting them choose their own path in life, no matter how much it hurts,” the helmer toldPvNew.
Sieling, who served as episodic director on several U.S. shows, including “Homeland,” said she was first approached by Cavling Prize-winning journalist Nagieb Khaja and her “Margarete-Queen of the North” co-writer Jesper Fink, who had written a script, based on Khaja’s original idea and his “many documentaries from trips he had made to Syria in 2014.”
“They needed a director-writer to move the story forward, and I came on board,” she said. “I rewrote and worked with the script to make it a shooting draft that I could believe in, as the blueprint for the movie that I wanted to make.“
The fictional story was “sensitive to make,” as it was partly based on real people in Syria whom Khaja had met. Drawing from her long experience as a storyteller, Sieling admitted that staying “very cinematic and dramatic was sometimes a delicate matter, but it was crucial for me to make fiction and not a documentary.”
Danish star actor Nikolaj Lie Kaas was cast at an early stage as the desperate father, Christian, who risks his life to win back his son. “Nikolaj read the script and was very excited, so I just knew that he would be the right person for the part. You need an actor who really can connect with material like this. The same goes for Albert [Rudbeck Lindhardt, who plays Adam]. He totally got it and made it his own when he came for the casting, “Sieling observed.
Expanding on Kaas’ performance, Sieling described him as “one of the most disciplined actors I have ever met. “
“After running all day up some hills on camera, which was very tough physically, I found him running on a tread mill at the gym in the hotel at night. He studied Arabic and was dedicated to getting it right. He was involved with the script before shooting, and in some of his scenes, he actually wrote some dialogue. It was a great creative process!”
Shot over 32 days in Jordan, with support from local production company The Imaginarium Films, “Way Home” was produced bySigne Leick Jensen and Morten Kaufmann in co-production with Germany’s Tamtam Film and Norway’s Hummelfilm, in association with pubcasters ZDF, DR, NRK, Yle, RÚV, Oktober Oy, and Scandi distributor Scanbox Entertainment.
The Norwegian International Film Festival’s industry showcase New Nordic Films will run Aug. 20-23 in Haugesund, Norway.
