Two gifted eccentrics to Toronto

FESTIVAL. Christoffer Boe's "Sex, Drugs and Taxation" is selected for the Vanguard programme at this year's Toronto Film Festival.

The Toronto International Film Festival, running 5-15 September, has selected Christoffer Boe's "Sex, Drugs & Taxation". The film will be screened in Vanguard, a programme challenging the mainstream with its choice of provocative and offbeat films.

Also participating are the Danish co-productions "Borgman" and "Vi är bäst!". The full festival programme has yet to be announced.

A Libertarian and a Hedonist

Enjoying its international premiere at the festival, "Sex, Drugs & Taxation" is Christoffer Boe's story about Mogens Glistrup, a radical libertarian, and the hedonist capitalist Simon Spies. Their friendship, forged by being outsiders in a conformist country, took them through years of adulation and success, with slight detours into the welcoming arms of vilification and imprisonment. Boe's story about Spies and Glistrup covers just a few decades from 1965 to 1984.

Nicolas Bro ("Excuse Me") plays Mogens Glistrup and Pilou Asbæk ("Borgen", "A Hijacking") is Simon Spies. Director Christoffer Boe won the Camera d'Or at the Cannes festival in 2003 for his feature debut "Reconstruction". Recent titles by Boe include "Beast" and "Everything Will Be Fine".

Boe wrote the screenplay with Simon Pasternak, and Tine Grew Pfeiffer and Caroline Schlüter Bingestam have produced for Alphaville Pictures Copenhagen. International sales are handled by Level K.

"Sex, Drugs & Taxation" has received support from the Danish Film Institute and will be released in Denmark on 29 August.

Borgman

"Borgman" is a Dutch-Belgian-Danish co-production, with Sara Hjort and Benjamin Boe Rasmussen on the cast list, and costume designs by Stine Gudmundsen-Holmgren. The film was selected for Competition in Cannes earlier this year.

In this dark, malevolent fable the central character Camiel Borgman arrives in the sealed-off streets of modern suburbia. His presence unleashes a crowing gallery of distortion around the careful façade constructed by an arrogant, comfortable couple, their three children and nanny.

Danish co-producers are Tine Mosegaard and Mogens Glad of Angel Films.

Vi är bäst! (We are the Best)

Swedish director Lukas Moodysson returns to feel-good mode with the coming of age film "Vi är bäst!" about three girls who start a punk rock band in Stockholm in the 80's without any instruments, even though everybody says that punk is dead.

The film is produced by Lars Jönsson of Memfis Film and co-produced by Danish Zentropa.

Toronto International Film Festival 5-15 September