When Copenhagen International Film Festival fades up for this year’s film event on 20 September, the audience can experience 147 fantastic films. 11 of them will get special attention, namely the films in competition, which compete for the six categories of the festival’s Golden Swan award.
The winners of The Golden Swan will be chosen exclusively by an international jury consisting of five distinguished persons from the European film industry.
This year’s competition films:
Actresses (France)
Dir.: Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi. With Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Noémie Lvovsky and Mathieu Amalric. During the theatre production of a Russian classic, the world starts collapsing around the self-centred star Marcelline, who can only live through her characters. Her director is not of much help and her friend is only interested in seeing her fail. Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi has let herself be inspired by Pedro Almodóvar, the Marx Brothers and Ingmar Bergman.
Children (Iceland)
Dir.: Ragnar Bragason. With Gísli ôrn Gardarsson, Ólafur Darri Òlafsson and Nina Dôss Filippusdottir. The intimate relationship between parents and children is dissected to reveal all its attributes of powerlessness and overprotectiveness in the stories of four individuals: Marino, the local retard with the mind and inner demons of a child; Gardar, a heartless criminal with no roots, who is willing to do anything for a bit of money; Karitas, a nurse and single mother of four, who is caught in a net of economic and emotional powerlessness; and Gudmund, Karitas’s fatherless son, who’s having a hard time trying to find his place in the world.
The Counterfeiters (Die Fälscher) (Germany/Austria)
Dir.: Stefan Ruzowitsky. With Karl Markovics, August Diehl and Devid Striesow. Salomon Sorowitsch (Markovics) is the uncrowned king of counterfeiting in the swinging Berlin of the 1930s, and it’s his profession, not his Jewish background, that makes him end up in the camps. But he is also an ice-cold survivor, so he curries the favour of guards by painting their portraits. In 1944, he is transferred to Sachsenhausen, where his special abilities give him a central role in the attempt to counterfeit British and, not least, American currency.
Hallam Foe (England)
Dir.: David Mackenzie. With Jamie Bell, Sophia Myles and Ciarán Hinds. Hallam’s mother has died, and he doesn’t think that she drowned by accident on his rich father’s estate in the Scottish highlands. Instead, he suspects that his father’s new wife is responsible for her death, and his hatred for his surroundings makes him withdraw into his own dramatic fantasy world. His father does not back his accusations, and after a surprising confrontation with his stepmother, he runs away from home.
Heartbeat Detector (France)
Dir.: Nicolas Klotz. With Mathieu Amalric, Michael Lonsdale and Jean-Pierre Kalfon. Simon is a HR manager in a big chemicals company, and has a highly professional approach to work. He is a well-dressed ”corporate terminator”, who sees the company’s efficiency as his first priority. This is why he is also the ideal candidate to secretly investigate the company’s director, Mathias Just, whose behaviour is slightly too eccentric. But Simon is in no way prepared for the grave crimes that soon bob to the surface.
Irina Palm (Belgium/Germany/Luxembourg/United Kingdom/France)
Dir.: Sam Gabarski. With Marianne Faithfull, Miki Manojlovic and Kevin Bishop. Maggie’s life in a grey English suburb has come to a bit of a standstill, until one day she is forced to find money, a lot of money – quickly. Her grandson has a heart disease that can only be treated in Australia, and his parents have long run out of possibilities to borrow money. That’s why Maggie, who has never had a job in her life, has to look for work. She accidentally ends up in a sleazy Soho sex club, and she is soon known for giving the best hand job in town - under the exotic name of Irina Palm.
Mirush (Norway)
Dir.: Marius Holst. With Nazif Muarremi, Enrico Lo Verso and Mirjana Karanovic. A touching drama about the teenager Mirush’s ill-fated encounter with his father, who abandoned his family in Kosovo to move to Norway, when Mirush was a little boy. Since then, they haven’t heard from him, but Mirush has always imagined that everything would be ok, if only his father would be back in the picture again. After a tragic experience in Kosovo, 15-year-old Mirush leaves his mother (Karanovic) and goes to Oslo as an illegal immigrant. Here, he finds his father (Lo Verso), who is struggling to pay back debts to the Albanian Mafia.
The Band’s Visit (Israel/France)
Dir.: Eran Kolirin. With Sasson Gabai, Ronit Elkabetz and Saleh Bakri. When Alexandria’s Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel, with its musicians dressed in eye-catching blue uniforms, nobody comes to pick them up at the airport. The rule-abiding and melancholic orchestra leader Tawfiq (Gabai) won’t let himself be defeated, and soon they are aboard a bus heading for the town they are meant to play in. But the place they end up in is not much of a town. Nor is it the right one. It turns into a memorable night for both the Egyptians and the Israelis, who end up knowing more about each other and about themselves.
The Trap (Serbia/Germany/Hungary)
Dir.: Srdan Golubovic. With Nebojsa Glogovac, Natasa Ninkovíc and Miki Manojlovic. A father faces a tough moral dilemma in this claustrophobic thriller. When his son is diagnosed with a life-threatening disease, the doctors’ only suggestion is to send him abroad for an expensive operation. It is impossible for the parents to raise the necessary funds, so, as a last resort, the mother writes an advert in the newspaper asking for help. The only response comes from the mysterious Kosta (Manojlovic). Kosta offers the father a solution, but the question is how far the father is willing to go to save his son.
To Love Someone (Sweden)
Dir.: Åke Sandgren. With Sofia Ledarp, Jonas Karlsson and Rolf Lassgård. Kim Fupz Aakeson has written the screenplay for this emotionally charged triangle drama, where a woman, Lena (Sofia Ledarp), is caught between two men. Lena was previously madly in love with Hannes (Jonas Karlsson), but his violent disposition put an end to their love. This happened on the day when he hit her so many times that she almost didn’t recover. While Hannes has gone through therapy in prison, the mentally scarred Lena has got together with the serene Alf (Rolf Lassgård). But she feels far from safe, as Hannes is about to be released.
Under the Stars (Spain)
Dir.: Felix Viscarret. With Alberto San Juan, Emma Suárez and Julíán Villagrain. The trumpet-player Benny plays a lot, sleeps very little and often has too many bottles of wine. Although he is living out his vocation, it’s a hard life, where ambition and temptation are fighting for his attention. Benny has to go back to his small home town in northern Spain when his father dies, but he’s reluctant, since their relationship has never been very close. He lands in the middle of a conflict between his sensitive artist brother, the brother’s girlfriend and her daughter.
The films compete for:
Best Film
Best Director
Best Actress
Best Actor
Best Screenplay
Best Cinematography
The awards are sponsored by:
Danish Film Producers
Danish Film Directors
Danish Actors’ Association
Danish Playwrights’ Association
Film Finances Scandinavia ApS
Copenhagen International Film Festival is Denmark’s great film event:
From 20 to 30 September 2007.
For further information, please visit www.copenhagenfilmfestival.com or contact:
Chatelin Bruno 
