HÅP/HOPE, Europa Cinemas Label
Berlinale Panorama
Norwegian director Maria Sødahl’s film HÅP/HOPE has won the Europa Cinemas Label as Best European film in the Panorama section, it was announced today by a jury of four exhibitors from the network, the sixteenth time the Label has been awarded in Berlin.
HÅP/HOPE will now benefit from promotional support from Europa Cinemas and better exhibition thanks to a financial incentive for network cinemas to include it in their programme schedule.
The Label Jury consisted of Silvia Bahl (Metropol Düsseldorfer Filmkunstkinos GmbH, Düsseldorf, Germany), Johan Fogde Dias (Zita Folkets Bio, Stockholm, Sweden), Hans Heesen (Luxor Theater, Zutphen, The Netherlands) and Ewa Kujawińska (Kino Pałacowe, Poznan, Poland).
The jury issued the following statement – “HÅP/HOPE is a touching and moving drama about the dramatic impact of a sudden, serious illness on a family. It is a love story – complex, always empathetic and never sentimental. The family dynamic is very subtly portrayed and feels totally authentic, with the acting, screenplay, editing, and cinematography all top notch. Many congratulations to Maria Sødahl, whose film can offer hope, insight and inspiration to audiences across Europe.”
Sold internationally by Trust Nordisk, HÅP/HOPE is written and directed by Maria Sødahl, with Cinematography by Manuel Alberto Claro, Editing by Christian Siebenherz, Sound Design by Gisle Tveito, Sound by Henric Andersson, Production Design by Jørgen Stangebye Larse, Costumes by Ellen Dæhli Ystehede, Make-up by Anja Dahl, Casting by Celine Engebrigtsen, with Production Manager Bente Maalen.
The cast includes Andrea Bræin Hovig, Stellan Skarsgård, Elli Müller Osborne, Alfred Vatne Brean, Daniel Storm Forthun Sandbye, Eirik Hallert, Steinar Klouman Hallert, Dina Enoksen Elvehaug, Einar Økland and Gjertrud Jynge.
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Synopsis:
Anja and Tomas once had completely different plans for their lives. When the much younger Anja is diagnosed with a brain tumour, the way this successful couple goes through the motions of their well-organised life together suddenly collapses. To cap it all, it is Christmas. The shock of being confronted with mortality, a thought otherwise repressed in everyday life, transforms everything.
This film takes an unsentimental but empathetic look at how the perception of time suddenly changes: for the couple, their patchwork family and their circle of friends. Like an emotional earthquake, this changed perspective triggers conversations that had previously been put on hold and repressed thoughts and feelings are unleashed. Everyday spaces, casual gestures and ingrained conversational patterns turn out to be nothing but the guise of normality that only exists as long as the protagonists’ bodies are willing to play along. What happens when someone bows out? It is the drama of a cooling relationship between two people who now find themselves faced with a new kind of reality.
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The Producer is Thomas Robsahm, Executive Producers Yngve Sæther and Espen Osmundsen and Co-producers Lizette Jonjic and Peter Possne.
HÅP/HOPE is a Motlys Production, a Norwegian/Swedish co-production between Zentropa Sweden, and Film i Väst, Trollhättan.
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Pictures: Manuel Claro