Hope
Director: Maria Sødahl Run Time: 130 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 2021
Starring: Andrea Bræin Hovig, Elli Rhiannon Müller Osborne, Gjertrud Jynge, Stellan Skarsgård
Country: Norway, Sweden, Denmark
Language: Norwegian, Swedish
Presented in the Virtual Screening Room in partnership with KimStim.
“An organically emotional, never melodramatic work whose raw and unpretentious approach is extremely moving.”
– Vassilis Economou for Cineuropa
About the film:
Official Selection of the 2020 Berlinale and Toronto International Film Festival, and Norway’s official submission for Best International Feature to the 93rd Academy Awards. Director Maria Sødahl wrote the screenplay from her own experience fighting a cancer diagnosis with her partner.
Longtime partners and parents to a large family, Anja and Tomas have grown independent of each other, with creative jobs in parallel worlds. Their modern life breaks down when Anja gets a terminal cancer diagnosis and realizes that she needs Tomas’ full help and support. After years of emotional isolation, they finally begin to find each other again.
About the filmmaker:
A graduate from Denmark’s National Film School, Maria Sødahl has amassed critical acclaim for her work on numerous television dramas, documentaries, and short films. Sødahl first gained attention for her short film, Sara, included in the 1995 short film series, Love & Hate- European Stories. Her work secured her the Jury’s Special Award at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival that same year.
Sødahl made her feature debut with the self-written Limbo in 2010, first premiering as the opening film of the 2010 Norwegian International Film Festival- Haugesund. The film garnered five Amanda Awards out of a total ten nominations and earned Sødahl the title of Best Director at the 2010 Montreal World Film Festival. Hope marks Maria’s return to cinema after a nine-year hiatus.
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