The cartoon 'Free Jimmy', a British-Norwegian co-production, will be screened at the International Critics' Week at the Cannes Film Festival in addition to the Norwegian films 'The bothersome man'. Another two movies from Norway are invited to the renowned festival on the Côte d'Azur, and this year's entries mark Norway strongest participation at the festival ever.
"For a small country like Norway with 19 feature films produced in 2005, this year's strong presentation is a very pleasant surprise, " said Jan Erik Holst, the director of the Norwegian Film Institute's international department. "However, we have seen it coming. The first graduates from The Norwegian Film School in Lillehammer are ambitious, and have started to make their mark on Norwegian films. This is only the beginning."
'Free Jimmy', directed by Christopher Nielsen
The film follows the story of four low life anti-heroes who are uprooted from their mean city streets to work in a touring Russian circus in terminal decline. The star attraction is Jimmy, an elephant kept "happy" on a cocktail of drugs. On the opening night a bungled attempt to give Jimmy his fix causes widespread panic. Jimmy escapes and so begins a mad cap cross country road-trip to find Jimmy before he goes cold turkey, writes the Norwegian Film Institute in their film review.
It took eight years to complete the movie, produced by Storm studio's Lars Andreas Hellebust and directed by the cartoon legend Christopher Nielsen. 'Free Jimmy' is Norway's first full length 3D-animation feature where they have used the world class film technology Computer Generated Images (CGI). The movie will be shown in Cannes on Thursday 25 May.
'Free Jimmy' will hit UK cinemas this September.
'The bothersome man', directed by Jens Lien
The film, produced by Jørgen Storm Rosenberg from Tordenfilm and based on Per Schreiner's radio theatre, tells the story of 40-year-old Andreas who arrives in a strange city with no memory of how he got there. He is presented with a job, an apartment – even a wife. But before long, he notices that something is wrong. The people around him seem cut off from any real emotion, and communicate only in superficialities. The ominous "Caretakers" who make sure the city runs smoothly, keep an increasing watch over Andreas as they find he doesn't fit in. Andreas makes an attempt to escape the city, but he discovers there is no way out, writes NFI in their film summary. The movie will be shown in Cannes on Saturday 20 May.
Stefan Faldbakken's 'URO' will be shown at the festival's sidebar program 'Un certain regard', while Bobbie Peers 'Sniffer' participates in the short film category. 'The bothersome man' by Jens Lien will compete for the Critics' Week award, and Christopher Nielsen's animated film 'Free Jimmy' will be the closing film at the Critics' Week.
For information about the two other movies, visit the NFI website. Here you will also find information about other Norwegian films.
Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs