Child 44’s Daniél Espinosa to direct ’The Emigrants’

Details of the project were announced at the annual press conference held in Cannes by Swedish regional fund Film Väst.

The Emigrants tells the story of Kristina and her husband Karl-Oskar, who emigrate from Sweden to America in the 1850s. Determined to flee poverty, religious persecution, and social oppression, they head across the Atlantic in search of a better life.

An earlier adaptation of EspinoVilhelm Moberg’s acclaimed novel was made in 1971 by revered director Jan Troell that was nominated for five Academy Awards and won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.

The Emigrants will be scripted by Petter Skavlan (Kon Tiki.) It is to be produced by Fredrik Wikström Nicastro at Svensk Filmindustri, and co-produced by Film Väst. Shooting is scheduled to begin in 2017, in the Västra Götaland region of western Sweden.

Another new project announced at the press conference was Per Fly’s The Killing Of Hammarsjold, a drama about the life and mysterious death of Dag Hammarskjöld ,Secretary General of the United Nations, killed in an unexplained plane crash during the Congo crisis in 1961. The scriptwriter is Ulf Ryberg. The producers are Patrick Ryborn, Eyeworks Scandi fiction and Malene Blenkov, Creative Alliance in co-production with Nordisk Film and Film Väst.

Meanwhile, Gilles Marchand presented his psychological horror thriller In The Forest. The film’s Swedish co-producers are Christer Nilson and Frida Hallberg from GötaFilm. Shooting is expected to start in late summer 2015 in the Film Väst-region with expected premiere in 2016.

Producer Louise Vesth, from Zentropa, presented her project You Disappear, a romantic thriller based on Christian Junger’s bestselling novel. This is to be written and directed by Peter Schønau Fog,  The cast is led byTrine Dyrholm and Nikolaj Lie Kaas. Several weeks of shooting is scheduled to Trollhättan.

Also from Zentropa, producer Marie Gade Denessen introduced her dance drama Second Act, directed by Birgitte Stærmose who also wrote the screenplay together with Kim Fupz Aakeson. The majority of the filming is scheduled to the Film Väst region.

Geoffrey Macnab/Screen Daily