One of the most well-known Danish actors working abroad, Ulrich Thomsen, has returned to home turf to play the lead in Arven (literal translation The Inheritance), the eagerly awaited new film from writer-director Per Fly.

Fly swept the national film awards last year with his strong social-realist drama The Bench. The DKR17.9m film roll from next week on location in Copenhagen, Sweden and France. It is written by the director in tandem with Kim Leona (The Bench), Dorte Hoegh and Mogens Rukow (Festen) and is produced by veteran Ib Tardini for Zentropa Productions.

Arven is the second instalment in Fly's planned trilogy about Danish society. It focuses on the rich and powerful and sees Thomsen's character reluctantly return from Sweden to take over the family company in Denmark after his father's suicide. The film also stars Lisa Werlinder, Ghita Norby, Karina Skands and Lars Brygmann.

Arven is backed by the Danish and Norwegian film institutes, Nordic Film & TV-Fund,TV2/Denmark and distributor Egmont Entertainment. It is sold by Trust Film Sales.

Thomsen had his major breakthrough as the son in Thomas Vinterberg's The Celebration (Festen) in 1998, and has since starred in The World Is Not Enough and Chen Kaige's Killing Me Softly.

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