Elisa Fernanda Pirir’s new Norwegian production company Staer, which launched in January, is already expanding with two new hires.
Both are producers who Pirir formerly worked with at Mer Film. Ragna Nordhus, who had been head of production at Mer Film, is joining Staer as producer and co-owner. Nordhus also co-produced Cannes 2022 Un Certain Regard feature More Than Ever by Emily Atef.
Gary Cranner, a former Screen Future Leaders producer, who also recently worked at Mer and previously ran his own company Chezville, joins Staer as executive producer. His credits include producing Now It’s Dark, co-producing Cloudboy and post- producing Let the River Flow.
Staer, based in Tromso in Northern Norway, will next shoot Arru, a musical drama showcasing Sami traditional joiks, marking the feature debut of Elle Sofe Sara, who previously made the short Sami Boy.
The film marks the first time a female Sami director has received production support for a feature film from the Norwegian Film Institute. The film will shoot in late autumn in Skaidi, northern Norway. Pirir had first set up Arru while working at Mer and now takes it to the new banner. Garagefilm International in Sweden and the International Sami Film Institute also on board.
The film tells the journey of a Sami artist and single parent who is gets involved in an activist campaign against the development of mines in reindeer herding areas. She meets a girl who reminds her of a painful memory from her own youth.
Pirir is an EFP Producer on the Move at Cannes 2023. Other projects on the Staer slate include co-producing Nabil Ayouch’s Touda, now in post-production; Inadelso Cosa’s The Nights Still Smell Of Gunpowder, also in post; and Juan Andres Arango’s Where The River Begins, which is scheduled to shoot in Colombia this autumn.
Norway’s Marte Vold will direct an experimental fiction-documentary hybrid film about Norwegian whalers. Pirir also has several fiction features in development with northern Norwegian director Anders Emblem, known for A Human Position.
Further collaborators with Staer include Kristine Ann Skaret, a documentary expert from Stray Dogs and executive producer Jim Stark, the US producer who has credits including co-producing Jim Jarmusch’s Down By Law.
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