Sarah Gadon (Countess Ebba Sparre) and Malin Buska (Queen Kristina) appear in the first image from Mika Kaurismaki’s The Girl King.
The film, which starts shooting in Turku, Finland on Tuesday, will continue its shoot in Sweden and Germany. The project is an international co-production between Finland (Marianna Films), Canada (Triptych Media and Galafilm), Germany (Starhaus) and Sweden (Anagram).
The Yellow Affair handles international sales.
Distributors already on board are Equinoxe of Canada, SF Svensk for the Nordic territories and NFP for Germany.
The story of Sweden’s 17th century Queen Kristina is written by Michel Marc Bouchard (Tom At The Farm) with the English-language version by Linda Gaboriau. The cast also features Michael Nygvist, Hippolyte Girardot and Martina Gedeck.
Kaurismaki said: “The Girl King is not intended as a traditional epic costume film but as an intense, actor-centered, psychological drama about one of the most interesting and mysterious personalities of all time, the 17th century Swedish Queen Kristina.
“She was a revolutionary free thinker, a connoisseur of art and science, a precursor of the feminist movement, a strong and visionary politician, a new European. But at the same time shewas a confused, restless, eccentric and isolated young woman.
“Through this unique personality we want to portray a modern human being - to break into the labyrinth of a human mind - as that is exactly where Queen Kristina found herself - in a labyrinth of political plotting and critical personal decisions.”
Backers include Finnish Film Foundation, Eurimages, Telefilm Canada, Nordisk Film & TV Fund,West Finland Film Commission, Swedish Film Institute, SODEC - Société de développement des entreprises culturelles, Québec Film, Fernseh Fonds Bayern, OMDC - Ontario Media Development Corporation, The Harold Greenberg Fund and SVT YLE.
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