Danish filmmaker Jeppe Ronde is now midway through the shoot for his new feature Acts Of Love, which is shooting in Jutland, Denmark. The Danish-language drama will tell the story of a young woman living in a religious community whose orderly life is interrupted when a man from her past visits, forcing them to confront their unresolved trauma.
The cast features Jonas Holst Schmidt (Copenhagen Does Not Exist), Cecilie Lassen (Walk With Me) and Ann Eleonora Jørgensen (Italian for Beginners). The seven-week shoot kicked off on May 1.
No sales company is attached yet but Scandinavian Film Distribution has pre-bought Scandinavian rights.
Julie Friis Walenciak and Siri Bøge Dynesen are producing and Per Damgaard Hansen serves as executive producer for their company Paloma Productions.
In 2021, Acts of Love won the best project award at Haugesund’s New Nordic Films.
Backers include Danish Film Institute, West Danish Film Fund, DR and Scandinavian Film Distribution. Ronde previously directed the English-language, Wales-set teenage suicide drama Bridgend.
Paloma is attending Cannes as co-producers of Jessica Hausner’s Club Zero in Cannes Competition.
Busy Paloma slate
The next co-production to shoot for the company will be John Skoog’s second feature Redoubt (Värn), to shoot in both Sweden and Denmark starting in August. Damgaard Hansen is co-producing with Erik Hemmendorff of Sweden’s Plattform as lead producer (the companies also collaborated on Triangle of Sadness.) Denis Lavant (Holy Motors) will star. The story is inspired by the real case of a man in rural Sweden who started turning his house into a fortress in case war might break out.
Producers Damgaard Hansen (Winter Brothers) and Walenciak (Neon Heart) joined forces in 2020 to launch Paloma, whose other recent credits include co-producing Ruben Ostlund’s 2022 Palme d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness as well as Berlinale 2023 hit Totem by Lila Avilés.
“Club Zero came as a direct result of our collaboration on Triangle of Sadness,” Damsgard explains,” with that Palme d’Or winner also bringing together Philippe Bober of Coproduction Office and UK producer Mike Goodridge. “We managed to do a collaboration that really took [Triangle] up the next level. We thought we all had something going on that worked well and we all enjoyed working together.” For Club Zero, it helped that Austrian director Jessica Hausner already had her eye on casting Danish actress Sidse Babett Knudsen in one of two lead roles. Also, some of the post-production was done in Denmark, as well as music supervision and rights clearances.
Michael Madsen (Into Eternity) is also developing a new documentary and his first fiction feature with Paloma. Thinh Nguyen will make her feature directorial debut with animated feature Bitter Melon Soup, exploring womanhood from a generational point of view.
“Whether our films pose existential questions, societal questions or political questions, we try to change that perspective on the world at least slightly, about who are we, what are we doing on the planet, what is our point of view on each other?,” says Damgaard Hansen of Paloma’s aims.
He adds, “I enjoy working internationally because you get different points of views on narratives and stories, and also on the ways of working and processes. The key point is that these are stories with points of view that feel relevant to us in the world of today.”
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