EXCLUSIVE: REinvent International Sales has picked up Empire, an absurdist interval drama about Denmark’s colonial historical past from Danish filmmaker Frederikke Aspöck.
Conceived and written by Anna Neye, who additionally stars within the movie’s lead function, Empire is ready within the Danish West Indies in 1848 and is a narrative about energy and human interdependence that goals to problem Denmark’s historic amnesia with a mixture of earnest drama and absurd comedy.
The movie’s full synopsis reads: St. Croix, the Danish West Indies, 1848. Anna Heegaard (Neye) and Petrine (Sara Fanta Traore) are shut buddies. Both are ladies of coloration, however their residing circumstances are very totally different – Anna is free and owns the enslaved Petrine. Anna shares her life with Danish Governor General Peter von Scholten at her nation home, the place she manages the house, her fortune, and her beloved and trusted housekeeper Petrine. Things are seemingly wonderful till rumors of a riot start to swirl. Which aspect are Anna and Petrine actually on – and is it the identical?
The pic had its world premiere earlier this month within the Nordic Competition at Göteborg and can be featured in REinvent’s Promo Reel screening on the upcoming European Film Market on February 16. REinvent will deal with worldwide gross sales.
The movie is produced by Pernille Skydsgaard, Nina Leidersdorff, and Meta Louise Foldager Sørensen for Meta Film in co-production with Brain Academy with help from the Danish Film Institute, Nordic Film & TV Fund, DR & SF Studios in collaboration with SVT & Seven Islands Films.
The movie will premiere regionally on April 20.
“Empire challenges Denmark’s highly romanticized look upon its own colonial past and does so with a confrontational aesthetic,” Aspöck stated.
“World history is written by and about white men, which is why Empire deliberately places female Afro-Caribbean characters – enslaved as well as free – at the center of its story. Through thorough research, the writer Anna Neye and I have done our utmost to try to understand the nuances of the former Danish colonies and how dehumanization affects those living within a terror-based society. In their attempts to survive, the oppressed risk oppressing further, and herein lie the human complexities and power dynamics we have wished to examine.”
Neye added: “People of color have been written out of the Danish history books in the same way women have. Visibility is important and we have deliberately wanted to create fully fleshed-out characters of color – characters full of agency and resilience. As an Afro-Danish writer I truly long for times when people of color are more than just a footnote in Danish history books. At least we deserve our own chapter.”
Aspöck is finest identified for her debut characteristic, Out of Bounds which premiered at Cannes in 2011. She has since taken movies to Moscow, Karlovy Vary, Rotterdam, and Göteborg.
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