Production outfit Motlys has been granted $760,000 from the Norwegian Film Institute for portmanteau project Most People Live In China - a single feature film with eight directors and six screenwriters attached. The directors and writers involved are a combination of well-known names and newcomers.

Each segment of the $942,000 film takes place in one single location - a gas station - and each main character will represent the ideology of one of the eight major Norwegian political parties.

The only thing the scriptwriters Marion Hagen, Per Schreiner, Harald Rosenlow Eeg, Nikolaj Frobenius, Kjetil Lismoen and Erlend Loe have in common is that they share the same offices in downtown Oslo. Frobenius is better known as the screenwriter of Insomnia, while Loe is the best-selling author who wrote last year's smash hit Detector.

Hans Petter Moland (Aberdeen) and Martin Asphaug (A Handful Of Time) are the most familiar names among the list of directors including Terje Rangnes, Magnus Martens, Sara Johnsen, Arild Frolich, Sirin Eide and Thomas Robsahm. The film will shoot this year ready for a spring 2002 premiere.

Production outfit Motlys is also producing another ambitious portmanteau project to coincide with Norway's 100th anniversary in 2005. The film, All For Norway, is a combined feature-length documentary and a ten-part television series on national history with a $1.7m budget and is to be directed by Sigve Endresen, Bent Hamer, Orjan Karlsen and Gunnar Vikene.

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