Danish Colonial Satire ‘Empire’ Wins Nordic Council Film Prize

deadline.com:

Empire, an absurdist period drama about Denmark’s colonial history from filmmaker Frederikke Aspöck and writer Anna Neye, has won the 2023 Nordic Council Film Prize.

The award was announced Tuesday evening during the Nordic Council Prize ceremony at the Opera house in Oslo. The gong was handed to Aspöck and Neye alongside producers Pernille Munk Skydsgaard, Nina Leidersdorff, and Meta Louise Foldager Sørensen.

Speaking of Empire, the council jury said: “It is a rare thing to come across a film that is so confidently and thoroughly thought through in every single detail, and where such an extraordinarily clear vision from the filmmakers behind it shines from every frame.

They serve a beautiful, sweet, and colorful treat laced with bitter poison and low-intensity rage. The film is complex and thought-provoking, and the filmmakers do not stumble once while telling their tale about an ugly part of history.”  Conceived and written by Neye, who also stars in the film’s lead role, Empire is set in the Danish West Indies in 1848 and is a story about power and human interdependence that aims to challenge Denmark’s historical amnesia with a mix of earnest drama and absurd comedy.