'Winter Brothers,' depicting the increasing tension between two brothers working in a desolate limestone factory, is announced as one of the five candidates for the Nordic Council Film Prize 2018.
The nomination goes collectively to director and scriptwriter Hlynur Pálmason and the film's three producers, Julie Waltersdorph Hansen and Per Damgaard Hansen from Masterplan Pictures and Anton Máni Svansson from Icelandic Join Motion Pictures.
'Winter Brothers' will be in competition with 'Euthanizer' by Teemu Nikki (Finland), 'Woman at War' by Benedikt Erlingsson (Iceland), 'Thelma' by Joachim Trier (Norway) and 'Ravens' by Jens Assur (Sweden). The winner will be announced on 30 October during the Nordic Council Session in Oslo, Norway.
Winter Brothers
A brother odyssey set in a worker environment during a cold winter. We follow two brothers, their routines, habits, rituals and a violent feud that erupts between them and another family. The film is a lack-of-love story, focusing on the younger brother Emil and his need to be loved and desired.
"A breath of fresh air"
Each of the five films is elected by a national jury. From Denmark, film critics Per Juul Carlsen, Jacob Wendt Jensen and Eva Novrup Redvall motivate their choice of 'Winter Brothers:'
"In a time when the film industry is characterised by conformity and secure solutions, 'Winter Brothers' is something of a breath of fresh air. Director Hlynur Pálmason experiments with strange image combinations and discomforting soundscapes, and although 'Winter Brothers' tells a story of some kind, the experience is based on sensations, associations, and dream interpretations. What do we do with a story about two brothers working on a lime mill in a bleak winter landscape? That’s up to us. Pálmason invites us on an excursion, but has no free tickets – the audience is the co-writer of a journey of discovery to an unknown land."
'Winter Brothers' has received several international accolades and is sold for distribution in a number of major territories such as the US, England and France. It was named Best Film at Denmark's two distinguished Robert and Bodil prize events and scored the main prize at CPH PIX.
Icelandic-born Pálmason, who graduated from the National Film School of Denmark in 2013, was earlier this year granted the Dreyer Award for his film, an annual award given to a promising new talent in Danish cinema.
'Winter Brothers' was produced with support from the Danish Film Institute's talent programme New Danish Screen.