On Saturday, March 20 at 7 PM ET, Scandinavian House will present a film talk with director Christina Rosendahl and actor Ulrich Thomsen, moderated by ASF President Edward Gallagher, on The Good Traitor /Vores mand I Amerika, screening to virtual audiences throughout the U.S. from March 18-21.
In April 9, 1940, Denmark was invaded by Nazi Germany with demands for immediate and unconditional surrender; the government surrendered after a few hours and began cooperating with the Nazis. On the other side of the Atlantic, Denmark’s ambassador to the United States of America Henrik Kauffmann, refused to follow the German directives and engineered a rebellious plan. Christina Rosendahl and Ulrich Thomsen, who portrays Kauffmann in The Good Traitor, will discuss the making of the film and the true story that inspired it with moderator Edward Gallagher.
The video will premiere at 7 AM ET on March 20 on here via YouTube and Facebook; it will remain accessible on this page throughout the weekend.For Virtual Cinema tickets for The Good Traitor, please click here.
About the Speakers
Christina Rosendahl studied Comparative Literary History and Film and Media Studies at the University of Copenhagen and spent a time at the European Film College and the New York Film Academy before graduating from the alternative film School Super16 in 2002. The breakthrough of her highly acclaimed directorial debut, Stargazer, a documentary about the band Swan Lee featuring her younger sister, Pernille Rosendahl, took place in 2002.
Children and youth have been at the centre of many of Rosendahl’s fiction films, among them her feature film debut Triple Dare (2006), which received international recognition with awards from the festivals in Trondheim and Zlin as well as winning her a national Robert Award for Best Children and Family Film the same year. Rosendahl’s second feature film, The Idealist (2015), a political thriller based on true events during the Cold War, won Rosendahl the Best Director Award at Beijing Film Festival in 2016. Our Man In America (2020) was her third feature film, and The Good Traitor is her fourth.
Since her debut Stargazer, Rosendahl has directed a number of documentary films, including Violently in Love (2017). Rosendahl became chairman of the association of Danish Film Directors in 2014 and is an active voice in the film debate, not least on gender issues.
Ulrich Thomsen (born December 6, 1963) graduated from the Danish National School of Theatre and Contemporary Dance in 1993. Having appeared in numerous productions on stage in his native Copenhagen, he made his feature debut starring in Ole Bornedal’s 1994 indie hit, Nightwatch. Thomsen has worked with many acclaimed directors world wide, and is one of Europe’s most sought after actors, starring in almost 100 productions. He was first introduced internationally for his leading role as a member of Denmark’s most dysfunctional family in Thomas Vinterberg’s 1998 arthouse hit Festen (The Celebration) for which he received his first Best European Actor nomination at the European Film Academy Awards. The film won the Cannes Jury Prize among many others and cemented the impact of the Dogma era in filmmaking history.
Thomsen has consistently garnered international critical acclaim in numerous European films including, The Greatest Heroes, The Inheritance, Brothers, Adam’s Apples, Allegro, Fear Me Not and In a Better World. Among his many accolades, he was presented with the Best Actor award by the Danish Film Academy as well as receiving a variety of international awards for Greatest Heroes, Adam’s Apples, The Inheritance and Fear Me Not. For his performance in Brothers, he received his second Best European Actor nomination and won the prestigious Best Actor award at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
Thomsen’s international feature films include the box office smash Bond: The World is Not Enough, Kathryn Bigelow’s The Weight of Water, Menno Meyjes’ Max, Chen Kaige’s Killing Me Softly, Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven and Tom Tykwer’s The International. He also starred in the 1999 Academy Award® winning short film, Election Night. Thomsen’s addition international feature credits include The Rocket Post, The Zookeeper, Blue Print, Mostly Martha, Opium, Hitman, Duplicity, Tell Tale, Centurion, Season of the Witch, The Thing, The Silence, Mortdecai and star Hungarian director Janos Szasz’s The Notebook.
In 2012 Ulrich Thomsen joined the cast of the True Blood-creator Alan Ball’s new tv-series Banshee for Cinemax, that ran for four seasons. Other TV appearances include, The Blacklist with James Spader, Counterpart with JK Simmons. The prestigious The New Pope directed by Oscar winner Paolo Sorrentino, starring opposite Jude Law and John Malkovich. In 2016 Ulrich Thomsen made his first directorial debut as a writer, director and producer with In Embryo, which world premiered in Official Selection at the prestigious 2016 Shanghai International Film Festival. His 2019 second featurefilm GUTTERBEE is a satirical black comedy that deals with identity, sausages, and the American dream.