Film Archive

Gold Coast

Official Selection - Competition 2015 / Guldkysten / Denmark 2015

Young anti-colonial idealist Wulff leaves for Danish Guinea to set up a coffee plantation but not everything goes according to plan. This bold contribution to the historical film genre casts light on a dark chapter of European history, employing the music of Angelo Badalamenti to help shift the experience into a dreamlike trip that partakes in equal measure of lyric poetry and a horrifying nightmare.

Synopsis

This bold contribution to the historical film genre is set in the 1830s at a time when the slave trade was still booming in the African colonies, even though the system had been outlawed by then in Denmark. Wulff, 28, leaves Copenhagen and sets out for Danish Guinea, at that time known as the Gold Coast, in order to set up a coffee plantation with the help of the native inhabitants. However, not everything goes according to plan. Repeated attacks by indigenous tribes force Wulff to seek help from a local trader named Richter. He thus unwittingly gets swept along in a maelstrom of events which lead him to unravel a festering conspiracy behind the façade of the Danish fortress. This story of an essentially anti-colonialist idealist casts light on a dark chapter of European history. The photography, skilful editing and the hypnotic music crafted for the film by Angelo Badalamenti are rendered into tools which the Danish director employs to build up a specific, dreamlike atmosphere. The result is a cinematic trip that partakes in equal measure of lyric poetry and a horrifying nightmare.

Martin Horyna

About the film

114 min / Color, DCP
International premiere
Director Daniel Dencik / Screenplay Daniel Dencik spolu s / co-written by Sara Isabella Jønsson / Dir. of Photography Martin Munch / Music Angelo Badalamenti / Editor Theis Schmidt, Rebekka Lønqvist / Art Director Liselotte Justesen / Producer Michael Haslund-Christensen / Production Haslund / Dencik Entertainment / Coproduction Film i Väst, InGenius Africa / Cast Jakob Oftebro, Danica Curcic, John Aggrey, Adam Ild Rohweder, Anders Heinrichsen, Morten Holst, Luise Skov, Mikkel Hilgart, Wakefield Ackuaku / Contact Danish Film Institute
www: www.guldkysten.com

About the director

Daniel Dencik (b. 1972, Stockholm) studied editing at the Danish National Film School in Copenhagen (1999). In addition to his film work he has written poetry and short stories since his early days, and has published five books to date. He is the editor or screenwriter behind a number of successful titles, such as the features Nói albinói (2003), Dark Horse (2005) and Labrador (2011), the last of which was premiered at Cannes. He won the Reel Talent Award in 2012 at Copenhagen’s CHP:DOX festival, presented to emerging documentary filmmakers. The Karlovy Vary IFF screened two of his documentaries in 2013: his debut Moon Rider (2012) and his second feature-length work Expedition to the End of the World (2013). The short documentary Tal R: The Virgin (2013) played to Karlovy Vary IFF audiences a year later. The unconventional historical film Gold Coast is his feature film debut.