News

Sf Studios is joining forces with prolific Norwegian filmmaker Henrik M. Dahlsbakken and the banner FilmBros on “Possession,” a horror film set during the Spanish flu in 1918.

The film, which portrays the terrifying events following a pastor’s actions in a small Sami village, is being handled by REinvent International Sales and will be distributed in the Nordics by Sf Studios.

Exploring themes of faith and doubt amid a pandemic, “Possession” opens in 1918, as World War I is coming to an end and the Spanish flu is ravaging populations. A pastor returns home to his family in Norway to start a congregation, after several years as a missionary in Madagascar. With the help of a local mining company, he starts the work of building a church, but the place turns out to be an old South Sami burial ground. When it is decided that the remains should be removed, an...

Exclusive: France, Japan, Spain among deals for adventure-thriller.

Danish outfit LevelK has sold Norwegian action-thriller Cave to Spain (Film Buro), Japan (At Entertainment), France (Swift Distribution), China (Jetsen Huashi Cultural Media), Korea (JoyNCinema), Turkey (Sinema TV) and Iran (21st Century Pictures).

The deals follow the recently secured pact for North America and Latin America with California Filmes.

Writer-director-producer Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken’s third feature, shot on location in Norway and Mexico, follows a group of former elite military operatives who set out to explore an uncharted cave system.

Cast includes Mads Sjøgård Pettersen (Eddie The Eagle), Benjamin Helstad (King Of Devil’s Island), Heidi Toini (Nobel) and Ingar Helge Gimle (Hotel Caesar).

Cave closed the Haugesund Film Festival and premiered in Norway on Sept. 2.

Exclusive: Companies to collaborate on slate from emerging Norwegian director.

Danish sales outfit LevelK is partnering with Norwegian production company FilmBros to work on a slate of films by 26-year-old rising director Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken.

The first film in the deal will be Dahlsbakken´s third feature Cave, an action-thriller shot on location in Norway and Mexico, which is currently in post-production and will be released theatrically in Norway on September 2 by Another World Entertainment.

Cave, which has a production budget of $500,000, is about a group of former military elites who set out to explore a terrifying uncharted abyss. Cast includes Mads Sjøgård Pettersen (Eddie The Eagle), Benjamin Helstad (King Of Devil’s Island), Heidi Toini (Nobel) and Ingar Helge Gimle (Hotel Caesar).

The film was pitched as a work in progress at this year’s Goteborg Film Festival and LevelK will show a promo in Cannes.

FilmBros is already in pre-production on a sequel, Cave 2, which...

★★★★☆ Set in the early 20th century on the Norwegian island of Bastoy, a penal colony for young offenders, Marius Holst's hugely absorbing King of Devil's Island (2010) explores themes such as authority, responsibility and friendship. After aggressive, foolhardy inmate (Benjamin Helstad) arrives on the island, disgruntlement begins to brew amongst the child prisoner inhabitants. Meanwhile, another child (Trond Nilssen), who has curried favour with the strict but occasionally sympathetic governor (Stellan Skarsgård), is only a handful of weeks away from release; he dreams of a return to normality having spent almost half of his life on the island.

Read more »...

A blend of Scum and Papillon set on a snowy Norwegian island, this is based on a true story. Brutally run by Stellan Skarsgård's Bestyreren, Bastoy, a school for "maladjusted young boys", has all the familiar cruelties – abuse, lice inspections, solitary confinement and a diet of raw fishheads. But when the hulking Erling (Benjamin Helstad) arrives, the boys have a new hero and one senses rebellion might not be far off.

There's an impressive force to the performances and, amid the ice and snow, the film burns with a sense of injustice that deservedly made it a hit in Norway.

Continue reading...

A blend of Scum and Papillon set on a snowy Norwegian island, this is based on a true story. Brutally run by Stellan Skarsgård's Bestyreren, Bastoy, a school for "maladjusted young boys", has all the familiar cruelties – abuse, lice inspections, solitary confinement and a diet of raw fishheads. But when the hulking Erling (Benjamin Helstad) arrives, the boys have a new hero and one senses rebellion might not be far off.

There's an impressive force to the performances and, amid the ice and snow, the film burns with a sense of injustice that deservedly made it a hit in Norway.

World cinemaDramaStellan SkarsgardJason Solomons

guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...

Dark Horse (15)

(Todd Solondz, 2011, Us) Selma Blair, Jordan Gelber, Christopher Walken, Mia Farrow, Justin Bartha, Zachary Booth. 86 mins

Trust Todd Solondz to give us the flipside of movie man-childhood. There's nothing funny or adorable about 35-year-old Abe (Gelber), who lives with his parents, collects action figures and has no idea of his own uselessness. He meets his match (sort of) in the virtually comatose Blair, and what ensues is a romcom that's neither romantic nor comical, but beneath the misanthropy lurks some kind of compassion.

Killer Joe (18)

(William Friedkin, 2011, Us) Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple. 102 mins

Curdling Texan noir and melodrama in a bizarre, curiously fascinating thriller.

The King Of Devil's Island (12A)

(Marius Holst, 2010, Nor/Fra/Swe/Pol) Stellan Skarsgård, Benjamin Helstad. 116 mins

Prison thriller set on a 1950s Norwegian borstal island.

Storage 24 (15)

(Johannes Roberts, 2012, UK) Noel Clarke, Colin O'Donoghue. 87 mins

Minimal sci-fi thriller set in a London storage unit.

Stellan Skarsgård is robust at the heart of an over-familiar Cuckoo's Nest-style drama

Stellan Skarsgård gives a wonderfully weighted and authoritative performance in this otherwise over-familiar Cuckoo's Nest-style drama, pungently played out at a youth prison off the Norwegian coast. He plays Hakon, the foursquare, God-fearing warden, struggling to subdue the antics of a fiery new arrival (Benjamin Helstad) who becomes the poster boy for the cowed other inmates. Robust acting and crisp direction eases the old-rope material through to the inevitable conflagration.

Rating: 3/5

World cinemaDramaXan Brooks

guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...

King of Devil’s Island, the Scandinavian thriller by Norwegian director Marius Holst, is being released in the UK on 29th June by Arrow Films. Winner of Best Film and Best Supporting Actor (Trond Nilssen) at the Norwegian International Film Festival (2011) and Best Feature Film at Lübeck Nordic Film Days (2011), King of Devil’s Island depicts the violent uprising of a group of young boys against their oppressive guardians. Starring Stellan Skarsgård (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Mamma Mia, Angels and Demons, Pirates of the Caribbean, Good Will Hunting), Kirstoffer Joner (Shooting Star), and rising talents Benjamin Helstad (Body Troopers, Angel) and Trond Nilssen, this is a story of hope and friendship in the face of great hardship.

Based on a true story King of Devil’s Island tells the unsettling tale of a group of young delinquents banished to the remote prison of Bastøy. Under the guise of rehabilitation...

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The interplay between beautiful and sinister imagery defines much of Marius Holst’s haunting Norwegian prison drama King of Devil’s Island. The bleakly perplexing visage of a harpooned whale dying alongside the arrival of two boys into a brutal prison system generates a stirring metaphor that grows only stronger over the film’s course.

Based on the actual 1915 uprising of Norway’s Bastøy Island, we meet new inmates Erling (Benjamin Helstad) and Ivar (Magnus Langlete) as they are initiated by being paraded around naked in front of their fellow prisoners. It creates an antagonistic atmosphere from the outset, one neither governed nor reprimanded by the prison’s ambiguous director, Bestyreren (Stellan Skarsgård). Violent confrontations are evidently endemic to the environment, no different from the majority of prisons worldwide. Disturbingly, those in positions of power, such as caretaker Brathen (Kristoffer Joner), order senior inmates to administer...

King Of Devil’S Island

Review by LondonFilmFan

Stars: Stellan Skarsgård, Benjamin Helstad, Kristoffer Joner, Trond Nilssen, Morten Løvstad, Daniel Berg | Written by Dennis Magnusson, Eric Schmid | Directed by Marius Holst

Norwegian thriller King of Devil’s Island tells the true story of the country’s Bastøy Island, once utilised as a “home” for maladjusted young men. Directed by Marius Holst, the correctional institution’s harsh conditions are the focus of the film that depicts the level of brutality and oppression that pushed many to their breaking points. Perpetually bleak, but buoyed by stirring and strong performances from its predominately youthful cast, King of Devil’s Island is yet another solid Scandinavian import to hit the UK over the past few years.

Carrying the film is Benjamin Helstad as the rebellious Erling, or C-19 as he is branded by the institution. Little is revealed about Erling’s past as King...

After playing a scientist trying to unlock the secrets of the Tesseract device in Marvel's Avengers Assemble, the Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard will next be on the big screen in King of Devil's Island.

The Scandinavian thriller is released in the UK by Arrow Films on June 29, 2012.

Winner of Best Film and Best Supporting Actor (Trond Nilssen) at the Norwegian International Film Festival 2011 and Best Feature Film at Lübeck Nordic Film Days 2011, King of Devil's Island depicts the violent uprising of a group of young boys against their oppressive guardians.

Also in the cast are Kirstoffer Joner (Shooting Star) and rising talents Benjamin Helstad (Body Troopers, Angel) and Trond Nilssen.

The film is described as a story of hope and friendship in the face of great hardship.

Based on a true story, King of Devil's Island tells the unsettling tale of a group of young delinquents banished to the remote prison of Bastøy.

King Of Devil’s Island

Directed by Marius Holst

Screenplay by Dennis Magnusson

2010, Norway / France / Sweden / Poland

Working on a big budget and starring Stellan Skarsgard, King Of Devil’s Island set box-office records in its homeland when released in 2011. Now the film hits stateside in hopes of taking advantage of the slow winter season.

Set in 1915, the movie is based on the true story of the infamous Bastøy Boys Home correctional facility, a minimum-security prison for young boys, located on Bastøy Island, Norway. The film opens with the arrival of seventeen-year-old Erling (Benjamin Helstad), a rumoured murderer who’s determined to break out and who eventually leads the boys to a violent uprising against a brutal regime. In between are many of the conventions of movies about sadistic prisons — There are attempted escapes, cruel punishments, sexual abuse, suicides and any and possibly all the reform school movie tropes you’ve come to know.

The doors of Norway’s Bastoy Residential School remained open from 1900 to 1953, and in that half century hundreds of wayward boys called it home. They found themselves there for crimes big and small, but the goal was the same for all of them. Find the “honorable, humble, useful, Christian boy” inside the criminal, and then return them to society. But while this small chunk of rock adrift just south of Oslo was a home it was never meant to feel like one. A biting cold pervaded the place, inside and out, and it was as prevalent as the rigid discipline, hard labor and overall oppressiveness that was the school’s daily routine. And as inescapable as the island itself. King of Devil’s Island is based on the true story of a student uprising that occurred at Bastoy in 1915. An incident triggered by sexual abuse but fueled by pent-up rage led to the boys overthrowing their guardians...

The King Of Devil’S Island takes place in 1915 on Bastoy, an island off the coast of Norway that’s sort of an Alcatraz for teenage boys. This wooded island prison, known as a Borstal is in the middle of nowhere, inescapable and grim. As depicted in this engrossing new drama from Norwegian director Marius Holst, it’s one of the most realistic and depressing incantations of hell on earth you’ll ever see, albeit a freezing cold one. The inmates use numbers instead of names, and are forbidden to discuss their past. The sadistic guards heap mental, physical and sexual abuse on them, and instead of the boys being reformed with education they end up being exploited as cheap, manual labor. The King Of Devil’S Island focuses on the two newest residents at Bastoy; Erling (Benjamin Helstad), is a tough older teen who has already spent some time as a sailor,...

Based on a true story, King of Devil’s Island dramatises the 1915 uprising at a correctional facility on Bastøy Island, Norway. Set in the Oslo fjord, the film charts the arrival of alleged murderer Erling (Benjamin Helstad) at Bastøy Boys Home: an unforgiving residence for Norway’s maladjusted youth which prefers numbers to names and forbids talk of the past.

Inducted with fellow offender Ivar (Magnus Langlete), Erling wastes no time in provoking the harsh school governor (Stellan Skarsgard) and coming into conflict with housemaster’s pet and dorm leader Olav (Trond Nilssen). When a teacher is caught sexually assaulting a pupil, however, order gives into chaos as the youths revolt.

Given the scale of the uprising and the infamy of the aftermath from which the film takes its name, it is truly surprising how unhurried director Marius Holst is to realise it onscreen. Instead, Holst conjects a series of...

King of Devil's Island from Norwegian director Marius Holst with star Stellan Skarsgard in the lead, will open the Goteborg Film Festival which is Sweden's largest film event. The fourth film from Holst makes its international premiere at the festival which opens on January 28th and is a gritty tale based on a true story of a youth detention center uprising near Oslo. The main character is a new arrival who will do anything to escape and encourages inmates to launch a revolt against the sadistic regime. Also in the cast are Kristoffer Joner, Benjamin Helstad, Kimmo Rajala, Trond Nilssen and Magnus Langlete...

King of Devil's Island from Norwegian director Marius Holst with star Stellan Skarsgard in the lead, will open the Goteborg Film Festival which is Sweden's largest film event. The fourth film from Holst makes its international premiere at the festival which opens on January 28th and is a gritty tale based on a true story of a youth detention center uprising near Oslo. The main character is a new arrival who will do anything to escape and encourages inmates to launch a revolt against the sadistic regime. Also in the cast are Kristoffer Joner, Benjamin Helstad, Kimmo Rajala, Trond Nilssen and Magnus Langlete...

Bastoy Prison is an actual correctional facility in Norway and now the island is the setting for an upcoming thriller. In Marius Holst's film, King of Devil's Island, the year is 1915 and over a hundred youths are housed at this remote location. Not liking the conditions much, the young men lead an uprising and take over the island. Stellan Skarsgard and Benjamin Helstad star; this film will release in 2011 and a trailer is below, which was released on some film sites earlier this month (Twitch Films).

The plot line of the film:

"Based on a true story: Norwegian winter, early 20th century. On the island Bastoy, located in the Oslo fjord live a group of delinquent, young boys aged 11 to 18. The boys daily, sadistic regime is run by the guards and the principal who bestow both mental and physical abuse on them. Instead of the boys being straightened...

[Updated with English subtitled trailer]

That Stellan Skarsgard and Kristoffer Joner are starring together in upcoming prison drama King of Devil's Island should be reason enough to pay attention to Marius Holst's upcoming picture. But mark my words. If the trailer is to be believed the real driving force of this film - and the titular King - is going to be its young star Benjamin Helstad who, in just his second feature, goes toe to toe with two of the biggest names in the Nordic region without giving up an inch. Here's the official synopsis:

Based on a true story: Norwegian winter, early 20the century. On the island Bastoy, located in the Oslo fjord, live a group of delinquent, young boys aged 11 to 18. The boys daily, sadistic regime is run by the guards and the principal who bestow both mental and physical abuse on them. Instead of teh boys being straightened out...

What follows is a strange amalgam of old and new links. It's a frankenstein roundup, stitched together over the past four days from aborted link posts that were accidentally unposted... until now. "It's Alive!"

/Film Jon Hamm as Superman?

Movie|Line's failed/jokey photoshop attempt at the same thing utterly delights me (pictured left)

I Just Want to Be Perfect Black Swan website devoted to Nina's (Natalie Portman) psyche.

Cinema Blend a look at the newly announced cast of The Hobbit. With pics. Why do I feel that this movie is going to be such a disaster when I love the LotR trilogy? I guess I've lost faith in Peter Jackson given that the beauty of King Kong was smothered by a lack of self-editing and then we got the disastrous The Lovely Bones.

Ontd Rachel McAdams and Michael Sheen. I must have slept through this pairing. This is news to me.