27° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL

GAMBLER

GAMBLER
by Phie Ambo
Country: Denmark
Year: 2006
Duration: 78'


GAMBLER
The film director Nicolas Winding Refn’s struggle to clear himself of a personal debt of 5.5 million Danish krones. He was forced to file for personal bankruptcy when Fear X became a box-office flop. His only chance to wipe the slate clean and continue his career as a filmmaker was to produce Pusher II and Pusher III. While shooting on location in the Copenhagen underworld he plays along with his financial advisors in order to extend his credit. And all along he must take care of his wife and newborn baby.

“What interests me is how an uncompromising person nevertheless accepts compromise. On the other hand, I am not particularly preoccupied with the artistic process as such, so I knew that I would approach the story much in the same way as I would if the main character had been any other person who had gone bankrupt. How do you pay the rent? What do you tell your wife when you are still out of credit for the second year running? What happens at home in the evening when your child has been put to bed and desperation creeps in?”

Biography

film director

Phie Ambo

Phie Ambo (1973, Denmark) grew up in Snekkersten in Denmark. She graduated as a math student from Helsingør Gymnasium in 1992 and from the Danish Film School in 1999. In 2001 she co-directed with Sami Saif her debut film, Family. The film won a Robert Award (considered to be the highest honor in Danish filmmaking) for Best Documentary and a Joris Ivens Award at the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA). In 2002, she made Growing up in a Day, a shortfeature documentary about two motherless children in Lusaka, Zambia. After Gambler (2006), she directed in 2007 Mechanical Love, a documentary on the contemporary interrelationship between robots and humans.

FILMOGRAFIA

filmografia/filmography
Family (coregia/codirector Sami Saif, doc., 2001), Growing up in a Day (cm, doc., 2002), Gambler (doc., 2006), Mechanical Love (doc., 2007).

Cast

& Credits

regia, fotografia/director, cinematography
Phie Ambo
montaggio/film editing
Theis Schmidt
musica/music
Nikolaj Hess, Jens Bjørnkjær
suono/sound
Mads Lundgård, Morten Wille
interpreti/cast
Nicolas Winding Refn, Liv Corfixen, Henrik Danstrup, Kusse Kurt, Frank
produttori/producers
Sigrid Dyekjær, Christian Rank
produzione/production
Tju-Bang Film
vendita all’estero/world sales
Nordisk Film
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