In its August round of support Nordisk Film & TV Fond has granted NOK2.5 million to The Unknown Soldier and NOK 500,000 to Reconstructing Utøya.

The Unknown Soldier is directed by Aku Louhimies (Frozen Land) who also penned the script with Jari-Olavi Rantala, based on the eponymous best-selling 1954 novel by Väinö Linna. The Finnish epic war drama in the vein of Band of Brothers is the story of a platoon of ordinary Finnish soldiers fighting their Soviet Union counterparts during WW2.

“The movie will take the viewer deep into the war, into how the war feels to each soldier”, says Louhimies. In the title roles are Eero Aho (Tears of April), Jussi Vatanen (Lapland Odyssey) and TV personality Aku Hirviniemi. More than 14,000 extras have volunteered for the €7m project that started filming June 6. Louhimies produces alongside Mikko Tenhunen.

The Unknown Soldier will be released late 2017 by SF Studios Finland, the year of Finland’s celebration of its 100-year independence. 

The documentary film Reconstructing Utøya by Swedish director Carl Javer will recreate the July 22, 2011 massacre on the island of Utøya, Norway with the help of survivors.

“The media have focused mostly on the perpetrator and mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik. We want to change that perspective and tell the story from the point of view of the victims,’ said Swedish producer and co-writer Fredrik Lange (Vilda Bomben Film). “Like with the Holocaust, it takes time for people to deal with this traumatic experience. Five years have elapsed. It’s still difficult, but perhaps not as raw. It’s time to rebuild and the film intends to contribute to the healing process."

As indicated in the title, Recontructing Utøya will be a reconstruction in a studio of what happened, through five young survivors and their interactions with a group of participants /actors.

“We wanted to avoid the real Utøya. That island is lost forever in Norwegian people’s consciousness and it would have been impossible for survivors to go back there,” notes Lange.

Norway’s JabFilm is co-producing together with Denmark’s Made in Copenhagen.

Delivery date is set for spring 2018. Distributors on board include Sweden’s Folkets Bio, Norway’s Tour de Force and Denmark’s DoxBio. Cinephil handles World sales.