German sales outfit Beta Cinema has taken international sales rights outside Scandinavia to Ole Giaever’s Let The River Flow, about the Sámi minority standing up for its rights. It recently won the audience award at Tromsø International Film Festival and is screening in the Nordic Competition at Goteborg this week.
It is produced by Norwegian outfit Mer Film, also behind War Sailor and Flee.
Let The River Flow is set in the summer of 1979 as its young protagonist moves to Alta in Northern Norway to teach at an elementary school. Like many Sámi at the time, she is ashamed of her heritage and conceals her ethnicity. When her cousin takes her to a camp by the Alta River where people are demonstrating against the building of a dam, she learns how the fight for the river is also a revolt against the years of brutal racism and discrimination against her people.
The drama is based on true events during the Alta River protest in the late 1970s and early 1980s that ultimately led to the establishment of Sámi rights in Norway. The Sámi are known as the last indigenous people of Europe.
Director Giaever’s feature film debut The Mountain premiered at the Berlinale in 2011. His second feature Out Of Nature screened at multiple festivals worldwide.
“Besides being a beautifully crafted film Let The River flow addresses two major topics of our time: ethnic minorities and environmental protest,” said Tassilo Hallbauer, head of sales at Beta Cinema. “It just couldn’t be more relevant and thus we are convinced it will resonate with audiences around the world.”
Beta will screen the film to international buyers at the upcoming European Film Market.
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