NEWS

“The Danish Girl”, “Wallander”, “The Bridge III”. Over the past three years, Copenhagen Film Fund investment has brought an impressive array of international productions to Zealand, and with them growth and job creation.

Now another great opportunity is on the horizon. “Backstabbing for Beginners” is the new thriller from Danish production companies Creative Alliances and Parts & Labor DK, written and directed by Per Fly. Copenhagen Film Fund has just invested three million kroner in the film, resulting in large sections of the production being set in Copenhagen and its environs.

The film’s total budget of 58 million kroner is also financed by the Danish Film Institute and various parties in the Nordic area, the USA and Canada.

“It is important for Copenhagen Film Fund to demonstrate that we also back larger Danish projects aimed at the international market. For that reason, Per Fly’s first international feature film is a perfect fit. It is an interesting project in every sense, with large scale international financing behind it and great potential, featuring established names like Ben Kingsley and Theo James in the cast,” explains Thomas Gammeltoft, CEO of Copenhagen Film Fund.

The production team are planning to start shooting the sections set in Denmark in April 2016. As noted, the cast features the much-lauded Ben Kingsley (Ghandi) and up-and-coming young talent Theo James (Divergent).

“Backstabbing for Beginners” is inspired by the true story of a Dane who gets his dream job working for the UN’s Oil for Food programme. Here he is pitched into a power struggle between power-hungry diplomats, cynical regimes and the desire of greedy enterprises to earn money from Saddam Hussein’s oil in Iraq. It gradually dawns on him that scams worth thousands of millions are being perpetrated, and that the corruption extends all the way into the inmost circles of the UN.

The Director underlines the importance of his own, and Creative Alliance’s desire to develop and produce English language films with strong Nordic backing and input.

“It is important to me that we come to Copenhagen to shoot parts of the film. Even though the actors are speaking English, and “Backstabbing for Beginners” is an international story about corruption, it’s important to me that a Danish audience can relate to the film and want to see it. That is my point of departure. And it was all made possible because of the Copenhagen Film Fund,” Per Fly explains.

 

Facts about “Backstabbing for Beginners”
Production Company: Creative Alliance and Parts & Labor DK
Producers: Malene Blenkov (DK), Lars Knudsen (DK), Nikolaj Vibe Michelsen (DK) and Jay van Hoy (IR)
Director: Per Fly (DK)
Screenwriter: Daniel Pyne (US) and Per Fly
Director of Photography: Brendan Steacy (CA)
Production Design: Niels Sejer Pedersen (DK)
Total Budget: 58 million kroner
Start of Danish Production: April 2016