On 16 April filming begins for Christoffer Boe's "Spies & Glistrup" (Danish title) about the relationship between Simon Spies and Mogens Glistrup, two larger-than-life figures who frequently made the headlines from the late 1960s onwards.
Challenging the Danes
Director Christoffer Boe, who won the Camera d'Or in 2003 for his enigmatic love story "Reconstruction", has written the script with Simon Pasternak about two extremely charismatic, complex and contradictory originals:
Simon Spies, known for launching the charter airline Spies Rejser and for his flamboyant lifestyle, and his friend from university, Mogens Glistrup, who became a controversial lawyer who grabbed the nation's attention as he went on television and praised tax evaders as the freedom fighters of our time.
The film begins in 1965 when the two of them meet up again, 15 years after their graduation, and their friendship evolves as Glistrup helps Spies turn his travel company into a successful and profitable business. The money pours in, and while Spies uses his newfound wealth to explore the limits of personal freedom, Glistrup puts his radical "zero tax" policy in place in order to overthrow the state. The film follows them over the next seven years on an amazing journey with psychedelic experiments and revolutionary ideas that challenge the Danes on their respectable social democratic self-understanding.
Story of a great friendship
"Spies and Glistrup's biographical narrative goes far beyond themselves," says Christoffer Boe who has worked on the project since 2008. "It's a great story about a friendship between two great originals and a small country that has never quite been the same since."
Manuel Claro is DP, and Tine Grew Pfeiffer and Caroline Schlüter Bingestam are producing for Alphaville Pictures Copenhagen with support from the Danish Film Institute.
Pilou Asbæk (R, The Killing, Borgen) plays the part of Spies, and Nicolas Bro, a key actor in most of Boe's films, is Glistrup.
The film is scheduled to release in 2013.
About Christoffer Boe
Boe's feature debut "Reconstruction" received the prestigious Camera d'Or and the Critics' Week Youth Jury Award at Cannes in 2003. The same year Boe was recipient of FIPRESCI's Director of the Year. Has made "Allegro" (2005) and "Offscreen" (2006), and in 2010 Boe returned to Cannes with "Everything Will Be Fine", selected for Directors' Fortnight. His latest release is "Beast", described by Boe as a psycho-horror drama.
Born 1974 and a graduate of Film and Media from Copenhagen University and of direction from the National Film School of Denmark.