*This event is now SOLD OUT.*
On November 17, see the moving new Danish drama Rose (France/Denmark, 2023), with a film talk and Q&A by director Niels Arden Oplev and moderated by Nina Tassler!
Rose is the story of two sisters, Inger (Sofia Gråbøl) and Ellen (Lena Maria Christensen), and how their relationship is challenged on a highly anticipated coach trip to Paris. In the late summer of 1997, Ellen and her husband Vagn (Andres W Berthelsen) arrive at an institution in Northern Denmark to pick up Ellen’s mentally ill sister Inger for a trip to France. When Inger announces her struggles with schizophrenia to their coach group, the sisters are faced with pity from some and discrimination from others; among those is the teacher Skelbæk (Søren Malling), who declares himself the champion of normality, and his young son Christian (Luca Reichardt Ben Coker), whose child’s curiosity and innocence leads him to develop a friendship with Inger that only grows fonder the closer they get to Paris.
On arrival, however, it soon becomes clear that Inger holds many secrets, including an ability to speak French fluently and rescue her group on several occasions, but also a hidden agenda concerning a figure from her past — Jacques (Jean-Pierre Lorit), her first love who left her when she was young. In the city where it all began, Inger separates from the guided tour and ultimately involves the entire group in her hunt for answers, leading to self-discovery, conflict, and reconciliation. Hailed as “refreshing…with fully fleshed out characters all of whom have their own journeys to undertake” (Eye for Film), Rose is a film about being able to love and care for each other in spite of our differences, and not judging a book by its cover.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Niels Arden Oplev graduated from National Film School of Denmark in 1989 and made an impressive debut with his student work WINTER’S END, starring screen legend Max Von Sydow, which was nominated for a student Academy Award. His feature debut PORTLAND (1996) was the first and most controversial film in the “new wave” of Danish films from the mid-90s.The film, portraying a violent underground in the northern and rural part of Denmark, was selected for competition at the Berlinale Film Festival, and went on to open Danish film week in Lincoln Center in NYC to great critical acclaim. In addition to his feature work he directed International Emmy Award winning series including UNIT ONE (for which he directed the pilot episode) and THE EAGLE. He returned to the Berlinale with his third feature WE SHALL OVERCOME, which won the Crystal Bear, and his fourth feature WORLDS APART.
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (2010), based on the book from Swedish writer Stieg Larsson, is Niels’ fifth feature film. It is the best selling Scandinavian film ever, best selling European film of 2009 and the only Scandinavian film ever to reach more than $100 million in box office. The film was released worldwide to much acclaim, winning the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language. He then directed MILLENIUM, the International Emmy winning series based on the books, the Steven Spielberg-produced Stephen King adaptation UNDER THE DOME, and the pilot episode of the hit series MR ROBOT. In addition he has directed the pilot episodes of Dick Wolf’s FBI, and VIKINGS: VALHALLA.Up next for Oplev is the WW2 drama THIRTY-THREE, which stars Mark Strong and Silver Bear-winning actress Paula Beer and is based on the true story of Josef Hartinger, deputy prosecutor in Germany’s Weimar Republic in 1933.
