Welcome To Norway Sells Ahead Of Gothenburg Premiere
Beta Cinema’s Welcome To Norway has been sold to Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy ahead of its world premiere at the Gothenburg Film Festival. It is expected that France and the UK will also close deals soon.
Welcome to Norway is about a hotel in the mountains that is turned into a reception centre for refugees. Producer Sigve Endresen says: “Sometimes it is amazing how the truth of a story can sync up with the timing of production. We worked on the script for two years and shot last spring, and now the refugee situation is in the news headlines.”
Anders Baasmo Christiansen, who stars as Petter Primus, nicknamed Primus Motor, says: “It’s a comedy. It takes up very serious issues, but we do it in a fun way… Through being able to laugh at this, one can perhaps learn something about the theme too. One can joke about anything as long as you know what you’re talking about.”
“We had fifty extras that are former asylum seekers, and we had a big laugh during filming,” Christiansen continues. “They thought that it was a really fun idea… We laugh at the everyday racist in ourselves.”
Welcome to Norway goes on theatrical release in Norway on March 4th 2016.