27° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL

VALHALLA RISING

VALHALLA RISING
by Nicolas Winding Refn
Country: Denmark, UK
Year: 2009
Duration: 90'


VALHALLA RISING
1000 AD. For years, One Eye, a mute warrior of supernatural strength, has been held prisoner by the Norse chieftain Barde. Aided by Are, a boy slave, One Eye slays his captor and together they escape. One Eye and Are board a Viking vessel but the ship is soon engulfed by an endless fog that clears only as the crew sights an unknown land. As the new world reveals its secrets and the Vikings confront their terrible and bloody fate, One Eye discovers his true self.

“When I was five years old, my mother read me an old pulp comic book about a father and son who embark on a trip to the moon. In a cave, they discover a manmade coffin, and as I remember nothing about the reason for the coffin being there or what happened next, I believe this to be the genesis of my obsession with the unknown – something which has been a driving force in much of my work. I strongly believe that film is an art form and that art needs to be explored.”

Biography

film director

Nicolas Winding Refn

Nicolas Winding Refn (Copenhagen, Denmark, 1970) moved with his parents at the age of ten to New York, returning to Copenhagen seven years later. After graduating from high school, he attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York but was quickly expelled. Back in Denmark, he was accepted by the Danish Film School but dropped out immediately. At the age of twenty-six, he wrote and directed his feature film debut, Pusher (1996), and after that he teamed up with producer Henrik Danstrup and formed the production company NWR to ensure complete artistic and financial autonomy for future projects. His next film, Bleeder, a dark tale of social maladjustment and frustration, premiered at the 1999 Venice Film Festival. Fear X, his third feature, starring John Turturro, had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2003. Refn then returned to make films in the Danish language, and between 2004 and 2005 he realized With Blood on My Hands: Pusher II and I’m the Angel of Death: Pusher III. In 2007, he directed an episode of the BBC series, Miss Marple. While he was preparing for his upcoming feature, Valhalla Rising (2009), he committed to another project, Bronson, the true story of Michael Peterson, considered the most violent prisoner in Britain; the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009.

FILMOGRAFIA

filmografia/filmography
Pusher (1996), Bleeder (1999), Fear X (id., 2003), Pusher II (With Blood on My Hands: Pusher II, 2004), Pusher III (I’m the Angel of Death: Pusher III, 2005), Marple: Nemesis (Miss Marple: Nemesi, TV, 2007), Bronson (2009), Valhalla Rising (2009).

Cast

& Credits

regia/director
Nicolas Winding Refn
soggetto, sceneggiatura/story, screenplay
Nicolas Winding Refn, Roy Jacobsen
fotografia/cinematography
Morten Søborg
montaggio/film editing
Mat Newman
scenografia/production design
Laurel Wear
costumi/costume design
Gill Horn
musica/music
Peter Peter, Peter Kyed
suono/sound
Douglas MacDougall
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Mads Mikkelsen (One Eye), Maarten Stevenson (Are), Gordon Brown (Hagen), Andrew Flanagan (Gudmond), Gary Lewis (Kare), Gary McCormack (Hauk), Alexander Morton (Barde), Jamie Sieves (Gorm), Ewan Stewart (Eirik), Matthew Zajac (Malkolm)
produttori/producers
Johnny Andersen, Bo Ehrhardt, Henrik Danstrup
produzione/production
One Eye Production
coproduttore/coproducer
Karen Smyth
coproduzione/coproduction
Nimbus Film, Blind Eye Productions, La Belle Allee Productions
vendita all’estero/world sales
Wild Bunch
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