Teddy Bear in US theatres

INTERNATIONAL RELEASE. Mads Matthiesen's Sundance winner "Teddy Bear" opens in select US theatres on 22 August. "The performance of the year", says critic about professional bodybuilder Kim Kold's portrayal of the meek giant Dennis.

Mads Matthiesen's feature debut "Teddy Bear" tells the story of Dennis, a 38-year-old bodybuilder who goes to Thailand to find true love and break free from his mother. The film celebrated its world premiere at Sundance where it won the award for best direction in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. Now, "Teddy Bear" is released theatrically in select US cinemas – in New York on 22 August and Miami on 30 August – and is well-received by critics.

Ella Taylor from NPR calls "Teddy Bear" "a sweetly muted domestic drama" and writes that "Dennis' graduation to adulthood makes a touching, often funny story." Read review

Indiewire's Erik Kohn gives the film a B+ grade and writes:

"While Kold's distant gaze nicely conveys Dennis' downbeat state, his physicality becomes the movie's true centerpiece. At the gym, he matches the environment, but everywhere else he comes across as a strange, alien presence. A gigantic physique hides the fragile man beneath and Matthiesen ably follows the journey of that persona as it tunnels through mounds of muscle to reach the surface. In essence, the lion finds his courage." Read review

Non-pro actor Kim Kold is also praised highly by David Fear from Time Out New York:

"It's only a slight exaggeration to say Kold gives what may be the performance of the year – one that not only offsets the movie's momentary dips into self-conscious quirkiness but adds a genuine sweetness to the proceedings. Forget the muscles; he brings the heart and soul." Read review

"Teddy Bear" is produced by Morten Kjems Juhl for SF Film Production in collaboration with Beofilm with support from the Danish Film Institute. The film is distributed by Film Movement in the US. 

Read interview with director Mads Matthiesen A Meek Giant