Camilla Nielsson: President

DANISH FILM INSTITUTE wrote yesterday: “Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee and Camilla Nielsson’s President took home top prizes at Sundance, as the festival celebrated this year’s winners during Tuesday night’s awards show. The two films, both produced by Final Cut for Real, have garnered rave reviews from international critics. The 2021 Sundance Film Festival announced their awards Tuesday night, with the list of winners including the two Danish documentaries.

The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for best international documentary went to Jonas Poher Rasmussen for his animated Flee. The film offers a gripping account of how the director’s close friend Amin arrived in Denmark as a young refugee from Afghanistan 25 years ago.

Shortly after its world premiere at Sundance on 28 January, Flee was bought for American distribution by Neon, the indie company behind the Oscar winning Parasite. British actor Riz Ahmed and his Danish colleague Nikolaj Coster-Waldau are set to voice the lead roles as Amin and Jonas Poher Rasmussen, respectively, in an English-language version of the film to debut later this year.”

A EPIC-SCALE DOCUTHRILLER

President, Camilla Nielsson’s follow-up to her festival hit Democrats from 2014, had a great start following its premiere at Sundance.

“A remarkable story of bravery and determination against daunting odds,” writes Screen Daily, also emphasising the work of DoP Henrik Bohn Ibsen, who “really captures the atmosphere of Zimbabwe: the dust and the decay, the motorcades, elaborate villas, feverish expectations and grinding corruption.”

“The way this film confronts the fragility of democracy and the ever-looming possibility of violence hit home for this American viewer in a way that was both harrowing and humbling,” says New York Times.

“An election documentary in which you’ll actually find yourself on the ‘stop the steal’ side, Camilla Nielsson’s brilliant ‘President’ is the follow-up I was hoping for to her brilliant ‘Democrats’,” Variety’s critic shares in a tweet, also naming the film a “gut-punch” and an “epic-scale docuthriller”. 

 President is produced by Signe Byrge Sørensen and Joslyn Barnes. Denmark’s Final Cut for Real is co-producing with Louverture Films (US) and Sant & Usant (Norway). Both films are supported by the Danish Film Institute.

Tue Steen Müllers anmeldelse af Democrats til 6 af 6 penne: Filmkommentaren – CPH:DOX 2014 /Camilla Nielsson

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Allan Berg Nielsen
Allan Berg Nielsen

Allan Berg Nielsen started the first documentary cinema in Randers, Denmark way back in the 1970’es. He did so at the museum, where he was employed. He got the (16mm) films from the collection of the National Film Board of Denmark (Statens Filmcentral). He organised a film festival in his home city, became a member of the Board of Directors of the Film Board, started to write about films in diverse magazines, were a juror at several festivals and wrote television critiques in the local newspaper. From 1998-2003 Allan Berg was documentary film consultant (commissioning editor) at The Danish Film Institute, a continuation of the Film Board. Since then free lance consultant in documentary matters.

abn@filmkommentaren.dk

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