Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s second feature, “Oslo, August 31st” (“Oslo, 31 August”), will play at has the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. It will screen in the Vanguard section of films “which defy convention; twisting genres, styles and narrative structures to tell fresh and provocative stories.”
The only Scandinavian entry in Un Certain Regard sidebar at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival, Oslo, follows ”one man, one city, 24 hours” and is inspired by French author Pierre Drieu la Rochelle’s novel, Le feu follet (The Fire Within), which Louis Malle filmed in 1963.
Scripted by Trier, with Eskil Vogt, the film is both a portrait of a man in deep existential crises and of contemporary Oslo, with Hans Olav Brenner, Ingrid Olava and Petter within the cast.
Toronto also selected Trier’s first feature, Reprise (2006), and gave him the Discovery prize as “one of the most exhilarating and fresh new directors in the world.” Reprise went on to win three Amandas, Norway’s national film prize (for Best Film, Best Director, Best Script), adding a dozen top awards on the international festival circuit.
Produced by Hans-Jørgen Osnes, Yngve Sæther and Sigve Endresen (Motlys) in co-production with Don’t Look Now, Oslo, August 31st will close this year’s Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund on 26 August.