“Honour of Persia”, the directorial debut of Cannes best actress winner Zar Amir Ebrahimi (“Holy Spider”), is one of five features at financing stage to be pitched at the Göteborg Film Festival’s first ever Nordic Gateway curated program.
The five international titles – hailing from Germany, Macedonia, Canada and Kosovo – will vie for the Tint Post-Production Award worth SEK 400,000 ($36,500) to be handed out Jan. 30, 2025 during the Göteborg fest industry sidebar Nordic Film Market running Jan. 29-31.
“With Nordic Gateway, we’re introducing an exciting new layer to the Nordic Film Market, creating a space where international projects can connect with Nordic professionals. In today’s challenging financing climate, building meaningful connections and partnerships is more vital than ever to bring strong stories to the screen,” said Josef Kullengård, Head of Industry at the Göteborg Film Festival.
Each project was carefully picked in conjunction with a national organisation or fund, based on its unique artistic value, advanced financing structure, international potential and clear intention to co-produce with the Nordics.
“Honour of Persia” for instance was short-listed with Moin Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein. The drama written, directed by and starring Ebrahimi, is being produced by Mohammad Farokhmanesh for Brave New Work. The Hamburg-based outfit is credited for the 2017 Cannes Critics Week animation hit “Teheran Taboo” toplining Ebrahimi.
With her filmmaking debut, the Iranian-born Paris-based actor goes back to her own traumatic experience, when in 2006, she was forced to flee her homeland after an intimate video of her was leaked.“ I never fully realized how traumatized I was by that whole experience. By developing this idea, I could finally admit it,” she told Variety two years ago in Göteborg where she was jury member.
In the pic, “a young beloved actress of Iranian television, sees her life unravel when an explicit video exposes her private life to the public, triggering a relentless hunt. Under the weight of religious norms and social contradictions, she desperately fights to preserve her dignity against a cruel and dehumanizing judicial system. On the brink of despair, Ava must choose: succumb to repression or redefine her destiny in a quest for freedom and truth,” reads the logline.
The feature is being co-produced by Ebrahimi’s French banner Alambic Production and “Holy Spider”’s Danish producer Jacob Jarek of Profile Pictures.
Showcased in collaboration with Flanders Image, Belgian project “Torpor” marks the directorial debut of another promising female voice: Meltse Van Coillie, nominated for a 2021 Berlin Golden Bear for short film “Zonder Meer.” Selected at the prestigious Résidence du Festival de Cannes where she was able to finetune the writing of “Torpor,” Van Coillie then approached producer Hans Everaert of with her project in early stages of development. “We were intrigued by the setting and story and convinced by Meltse’s motivation and previous short films,” said Everaert, one of Variety’s 10 Producers to Watch 2021.
The story turns on the Olivia (27), a polar bear guard tagging along with a group of scientists in an Arctic village who starts to develop a strong fascination for the scientists’ study: people in hibernation.
The project, co-produced with True Content Entertainment in Norway, Manna Film in Denmark and Volya Films in the Netherlands, has received support so far from the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF). Filming is due to start early 2026.
Presented in association with the Thessaloniki Film Festival’s Agora Crossroads Co-production Forum, “Bleach” (‘Zbardhje”) is Kosovar filmmaker Kaltrina Krasniqi’s sophomore feature after her debut “Vera Dreams of the Sea” which world premiered at Venice Horizons in 2021. Based on a script by Doruntina Basha, developed as part of the Torino Film Lab 2022, the project has received several development accolades, including from the Hubert Bals Fund (IFFR) in 2022, the Arras Days at the Arras Film Festival 2021 and Thessaloniki’s Agora industry days earlier this month.
The story turns on Fatime, a domestic worker from the outskirts of Prishtina, who catches the attention of the agency head Elvira. Soon, she finds herself tending to Elvira’s liposuction recovery at a luxury seaside resort. But when an incident shatters the two women’s fragile bond, Fatime realizes their so-called friendship was an illusion, shaped by class dynamics.
Producer Ares Shporta of Kosovo’s Vera Films said the project is being co-produced with Italy’s Slingshot Films, the Netherland’s Family Affair Films, Montenegro’s Code Blue Production and North Macedonia’s Dream Factory Macedonia. Principal photography is set for 2025.
To be showcased in Göteborg in collaboration with the Midpoint Institute, Germany’s “Grammatik” is the directorial debut of Berlin-based Popo Fan, one of the most prolific queer filmmakers and activists from mainland China. Inspired by his own experience, “Grammatik” tells the love story between a Chinese student and a Syrian refugee, both students at a language school in Hamburg.
Julia Cöllen is producing for Fünferfilm, credited for Helena Wittman’s 2017 Venice Critics Week-selected “Drift”.
Canada’s “Dance Me to the End of Love”, presented with Quebec’s promotion agency Sodec, is the latest pic by seasoned helmer Philippe Lesage (“The Demons”, “Genesis”). Galilé Marion-Gauvin is producing for Productions l’unité centrale.
Each year, more than 500 professional sign up for Göteborg’s Nordic Film Market, the prime industry showcase for Nordic films in development and post-production looking for co-financing, distribution and festival platforms. Göteborg”s other popular industry event, TV Drama Vision, unspools Jan. 28-29, 2025.
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