Highly active Copenhagen-based sales outfit REinvent has acquired rights to the Danish pic “Rome,” officially selected as the Göteborg Film Festival’s closing movie.
The life-affirming romantic drama marks the sophomore feature from established Danish choreographer Niclas Bendixen, behind Mads Mikkelsen’s famous dance scene in the Oscar-winning “Another Round.” Toplining the cast are Rolf Lassgård (“A Man Called Ove”), Bodil Jørgensen (“The Kingdom”), and Kristian Halken (“A Perfectly Normal Family”), who shares the writing credits with Bendixen and Christian Torpe (“Silent Heart”).
“‘Rome’ stands out as a heart-warming film which makes you think about life, love and values. We are proud to represent and showcase ‘Rome’ to an international audience in Göteborg. I am confident that the film will find a home in the hearts of distributors in countries worldwide,” said Helene Aurø, REinvent’s sales and marketing director.
based on Halken’s idea, the pic turns on Gerda (Jørgensen) and Kristoffer (Halken) who travel to Rome to celebrate a lifelong marriage, and relive the city where Gerda was once an aspiring art student. When they run into her former art teacher and lover Johannes (Lassgård), Gerda is reminded of the life she used to live, and wanders the streets of the Eternal City in search of her long-lost youth, while Kristoffer is sidelined.
“‘Rome’ is a movie about love, a love story where the characters evolve as individuals and learn to stand-alone together,” said the director.
Asked in what way his background as choreographer had infused his cinematic style, Bendixen said: “Both my parents were dancers, and I was basically raised at my mother’s dance school. So, dance and choreography have and will always be a big part of my life.”
“There is a lot of dancing in “Rome,” but it is choreographed in a way that you don’t see the choreography, you just see the people,” he explained.
“My approach to developing a scene is always visual, combined with the music of the dialogue, and with DP Manuel Claro [a Lars von Trier regular], we created the choreography, and that became a beautiful dance with the camera and the actors. Manuel was also part of shooting the dance scene for ‘Another Round,’” he added.
The Danish pic was produced by Andreas Hjortdal and Jesper Morthorst for fast-expanding Motor Productions (“As in Heaven”), in co-production with Italy’s Vivo Film and Sweden’s Gimme A Break, with co-financing from TV2 Denmark, SVT, support from The Danish Film Institute, The Swedish Film Institute, Italy’s Direzione Generale Cinema e Audiovisivo and Eurimages. Scanbox will handle the domestic release.
The pic will bow as a world premiere Feb. 3 at the Göteborg Film Festival and screen at the festival’s Nordic Film Market (Jan. 31-Feb. 2).
“Rome” is the second Motor production handled by REinvent, with the anticipated Stone Age epic “Stranger” by Mads Hedegaard, to be delivered later this year.
