Jeanette Nordahl: Last News

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentA Canneseries main competition contender, “The Dreamer – Becoming Karen Blixen” begins with a voiceover from Connie Nielsen (“Gladiator,” “Wonder Woman”) reading, in beautifully cadenced Danish, a letter ‘Out of Africa’ author Karen Blixen writes to her mother in 1931.In it, she expresses the joy Africa has given her, that the family farm she ran has gone bankrupt, and she will soon take her life.Exquisite shots of Africa play out, meanwhile, on the screen.It this mix of lush period detail and big production value and a harder economic edge and sustained portrait of a woman’s sentiments and soul –  through read letters, dialog confession and Nielsen’s central commanding central performance – that sets “The Dreamer” apart. Developed from a concept by Nielsen, “The Dreamer” begins when Blixen near ends, economically and emotionally bankrupt after her farm fails and her soulmate, as she calls English aristocrat Denys Finch Hatton, dies in an air crash at Kenya’s Voi Airport.Her suicide fails.

Guy Lodge Film Critic Two familiar premises for a personal crisis drama — the unraveling of a marriage, and recovery from a medical calamity — combine to raw and even surprising effect in Jeanette Nordahl‘s accomplished sophomore feature “Beginnings.” Arriving five years after her debut “Wildland,” a somber criminal drama quickened by an electric Sidse Babett Knudsen performance, the Danish writer-director’s follow-up once more uses confidently reserved craft and straightforward storytelling to place the spotlight on a gutsy big-name star turn, or two: this time from Trine Dyrholm and David Dencik, both without vanity and emotionally on edge as a long-married couple unsure how or when to end their relationship for good. It’s a fraught state of limbo even before sudden disaster strikes, as Dyrholm’s high-flying working mom suffers a debilitating stroke, and an already protracted divorce process is further placed on hold.

Annika Pham Twice selected for Variety’s index of the 500 most influential business leaders in the global media industry, Rikke Ennis, CEO of Copenhagen-based REinvent Studios, is one of the Nordic region’s most market- intuitive and forward-thinking heavyweights. At Göteborg’s TV Drama Vision and Nordic Film Market, she and her sales team will showcase high profile series including “Pressure Point” starring David Dencik, the Erik Poppe-helmed “Quisling,” “Heajastallan – A Sámi’s Wedding,” the competed features “Stranger” and “Second Victims,” and works in progress “The Dance Club” by “Love & Anarchy”’s Lisa Langseth, Danish/Korean “Hana Korea” and quirky Finnish debut “The Squirrel.” Proof of REinvent’s A-festival pulling power, is its recent film sales bet “Beginnings” by “Wildland’’s Jeanette Nordahl starring Dencik and Trine Dyrholm, which will world premiere at Berlin’s Panorama section, while the premium shows “Heajastallan-a Sámi Wedding” and “Vigdís” will bow at the Berlinale Series Market Select.