TV series Dough and documentary Defending Ongwen receive support

 PRODUCTION SUPPORT

TV Series 

• Dough (Deg)
  Format: 8x45’
  Grant: NOK 2.5 million
  Recipient: Nexiko, Sweden
  Producers: Lisa Berggren Eyre, Martin Söder
  Creators: Levan Akin & Mattias J Skoglund
  Writers: Levan Akin, Sara B. Elfgren, Mattias J. Skoglund
  Directors: Levan Akin, Mattias J. Skoglund, Måns Månsson
  Main commissioner: SVT
  World Sales: Newen
  
  Story: Dough deals with greed, revenge, and unlikely alliances in a world where appearances are everything. The story centres on two women from opposite ends of society. Malou is a business woman, obsessed with social status, but whose latest venture has gone wrong. When she comes across a bag containing SEK 47 million in cash from a robbery, she decides to open a bakery as a money laundering venture.
  
  Meanwhile Liana, is a debt-ridden single mum, left in the lurch by her boyfriend who got caught for the robbery. Everyone is convinced that he hid the money, and Liana is drawn into the hunt for the hidden loot against her will.
  
  In the titular roles are Helena af Sandeberg (Alex, Quicksand) and Bianca Kronlöf (Thin Ice, Underdog). The acclaimed director of And Then We Danced, Levan Akin, is co-creator, writer and concept director. Filming started in August. The premiere on SVT is set for the fall 2021.

Documentary 

• Defending Ongwen
  Grant: NOK 850,000
  Recipient: Made in Copenhagen, Denmark
  Producers: Helle Faber, Heidi Kim Andersen
  Directors: Emil Langballe, Lukasz Konopa
  Domestic distribution: DR
  World sales: Dogwoof Film Sales
  The film is co-produced by Germany’s Corso Film, with co-financing from DR, SVT, VGTV, ZDF (among others), support from the Danish Film Institute, DFI, Film Fyn, Germany’s NRW Creative Europe and Danida (Danish Foreign Ministry).
  
  Story: Uganda’s Dominic Ongwen is the first ex-child soldier to be indicted in the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes. At nine years old he was abducted by Joseph Kony’s Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), his parents murdered, he was tortured, brainwashed and forced to kill.
  
  His chief council is Krispus Ayena, a top-notch lawyer and a former member of Parliament; four of his brothers were victims of the LRA.
  
  The film follows Ayena as he prepared for Ongwen’s defence, and asks questions about the justice system, culpability, how a community recovers from trauma and how to deal with returning child-soldiers.
  
  Producer Helle Faber said the two established documentary filmmakers Emil Langballe (The Wait, Q’s Barbershop) and Lukasz Konopa (Vegas) were both “fascinated by the multi layered story and complex nature of the case”. They have been working on the film for about two and a half years. The co-directors have filmed in Uganda and The Hague multiple times, but according to the producer, “the Covid-19 pandemic has stopped them half way through the production”.
  
  “They’re using this time to edit what they’ve got so far and explore a vast amount of the courtroom footage from the ICC”, said Faber. The film will be delivered in 2022. 

Distribution Support

• NOK 300,000 to SF Finland for the release of the Swedish animation film Pelle-No Tail.

Dubbing Support

• NOK 110,000 to SF Studios, Sweden for the dubbing to Finnish of the family film Jerry Maya’s Detective Agency-The Secret of the Train Robber.
• NOK 90,000 to SF Studios, Sweden for the dubbing to Danish, Finnish and Swedish of the Norwegian family film Twigson and the Sea Monster.

Cultural Initiative Support

• NOK 75,000 to Scandinavian Films/Norwegian Film Institute, for the initiative Scandinavian Films Online in Cannes.