Danish production outfit Profile Pictures is set to start filming in three weeks the thriller Darkland starring Dar Salim (Borgen) as a masked man avenging the death of his brother.

Darkland is the second feature by Fenar Ahmad, co-written with Adam August and photographed by top DoP Kasper Tuksen (The Sea of Tree). The story centres on a successful surgeon who decides to avenge his brother’s death and goes undercover in Copenhagen’s criminal gang world wearing a mask. Next to Dar Salim are Stine Fischer Christensen (After the Wedding) and Dulfi Al-Jabouri (A War). The DKK 12 million film is produced by Profile Pictures co-founder Jacob Jarek (pictured), with co-financing from DR, Scanbox and support from the Danish Film Institute.

Profile Pictures headed by Jarek with Caroline Schlüter Bingestam, Ditte Milsted and Thor Sigurjonsson has a strong line up spear-headed by Ali Abbasi´s horror film Shelley screening at Berlin’s Panorama and vying for a Debut Feature Award. The DKK 3M film is one of two low budget films developed as part of the DFI’s new low budget scheme, together with the DKK 6M thriller 3 Things starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, directed by newcomer Jens Dahl (co-writer of Pusher). Jarek describes 3 Things as ‘a contained drama, a chamber piece with interesting twists that convinced Coster-Waldau to exec produce. The film will be released in Denmark via Scanbox in the fall.

Profile’s other feature debut by an experienced writer-turned director is In the Blood by Rasmus Heisterberg (writer of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). The coming of age film is pitched in Göteborg as a Work in Progress. Delivery date is set for May 2016.

Jarek says Profile’s projects have attracted a lot of attention from international sales agents and he expects to close deals after Berlin. “There is a lot of talent out there,” notes Jarek who co-produced Only God Forgives. “It’s been a bit tough producing on tight budgets, but the films have all come out really well and we want to give them the best chances internationally, with the right sales agent for each project.”

A more expensive project scheduled for 2017 is the next feature by Jonas Alexander Arnby (When Animals Dream). We Watch the Sun Disappear will be a survival drama, set in 1906, based on a true story. The film co-penned with UK scriptwriter Michael Kinirons tells of two men stranded in a cabin in the Arctic for several years when their polar expedition goes wrong.

Profile Pictures that co-produced the Icelandic films Rams by Grímur Hákonarson and Paris of the North by Hafsteinn Sigurdsson will be involved in the directors’ next projects produced by Iceland’s Netop Films.