Director Nils Malmros has just started shooting one of the most expensive Danish films of all-time: the budget for Kaerestesorger is set at $4.3m (3.7m Euros), including a record backing from the Danish Film Institute.

The director travelled widely with his 1981 picture Tree of Knowledge and nearlyalways draws on his own life experiences for inspiration. Tree ofKnowledge focused on the early teenage years in elementary school of agroup of child actors shot over a three year period.

Kaerestesorger is set to adopt the same realistic approach, telling the story of five friends in high school over a three year period and is set in the 1960s when the 61 year-old director was himself in high school. It willbe shot in Jutland, in Viborg, and Aarhus. The Danish film business is very centralized so this offers a rare occasion to see regional Denmark on film.

The Danish Film Institute is supportingthis film with a record $1.6 (1.4m.Euros). The rest of the budget from Malmros' tenth feature comes from Nordisk Film (producer Thomas Heinesen)and the Nordic TV- and Film Foundation, West Danish Film fund and the municipality of Viborg. The premiere is set for October 31, 2008.