Variety's Ten Euro Directors to Watch 2012 / Arme Riddere / Norway 2011
Tightly scripted by helmer Martens from a Jo Nesbø story, this blackly comic caper about four dodgy types who must share a multimillion kronor jackpot unspools at a rollicking pace. It’s a tale of dishonor among thieves that tips its hat to the Coen brothers’ Fargo and Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.
Tightly scripted by helmer Magnus Martens from a Jo Nesbø story, this blackly comic caper unspools at a rollicking pace. Opening with a bang and filled with jaw-dropping twists, the story alternates between the investigation of a messy crime scene at stripper bar Pink Heaven and flashbacks showing how witness/suspect Oscar wound up there, bloody and terrified, beneath a fat woman’s corpse. In a small town in Norway, near the Swedish border, Oscar supervises troublesome ex-cons as they produce artificial Christmas trees. When Oscar joins three of his charges in a soccer betting pool, the quartet defies the odds and winds up with a winning ticket. But given the personalities involved, it stands to reason that the multimillion-kronor payout won’t be split four ways, and that the factory’s wood chipper and nail gun will be put to nefarious use.
90 min / Color, DCP
Director Magnus Martens
/ Screenplay Magnus Martens
/ Dir. of Photography Trond Høines
/ Music Magnus Beite
/ Editor Jon Endre Mørk
/ Producer Are Heidenstrøm, Martin Sundland
/ Production Fantefilm
/ Cast Mads Ousdal, Henrik Mestad, Kyrre Hellum, Fridtjov Såheim
/ Contact Norwegian Film Institute , TrustNordisk
Magnus Martens (b. 1973, Stord, Norway) has devoted himself to comedy ever since graduating from the London Film School (1993-96). Beyond a career making commercials (for which he is one of Norway’s best established directors and screenwriters), he also writes and directs for television. Having developed a knack for a variety of comic sensibilities over the years, he has honed a unique, well-defined style. His short films and his feature debut United (2003) have been successful with domestic audiences and at international festivals. The Coen-esque movie Jackpot, based on an original story idea by Martens’s renowned and prolific countryman Jo Nesbø, is his third feature film.
Norwegian Film Institute
Box 482 Sentrum, 0105, Oslo
Norway
Phone: +47 224 745 00
Fax: +47 224 745 97
E-mail: [email protected]
TrustNordisk
Filmbyen 22, 2650, Hvidovre
Denmark
Phone: +45 368 687 88
E-mail: [email protected]
Stine Oppegaard
Film Institution Rep.
Magnus Martens
Film Director
Knut Skinnarmo
Film Institution Rep., Film Institution Rep.
Silje Nikoline Glimsdal
Sales Agent
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