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My Eternal Summer. Sylvia Le Fanu on the writing process: 'The way we write, we work a lot from memories and that's where we start' Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival Denmark-based British director Sylvia Le Fanu’s debut My Eternal Summer (Min Evige Sommer) draws on her own experience of losing her mum at a young age to paint a vivid and poignant picture of a family spending a last summer together, with all its emotional ups and downs. Fanny (Kaya Toft Loholt) is a typical teenager and those emotions don’t stop even though her mum Karin (Maria Rossing), is terminally ill. Le Fanu and her co-writer Mads Lind Knudsen unsentimentally chart the last weeks of Karin’s life as she, Fanny and Fanny’s dad Johan (Anders Mossling) navigate them as best they can. We caught up with Le Fanu after the film’s premiere in...

Told through the eyes of 15-year-old Fanny (Kaya Toft Loholt), the intimate, deeply moving My Eternal Summer (Min Evige Sommer) observes an eventful vacation spent waiting for Fanny’s terminally ill mother, Karin (Maria Rossing), to die. In delicately balanced scenes filled with poignant detail, Denmark-based director Sylvia Le Fanu (making her feature debut) and her co-writer Mads Lind Knudsen unfurl a very Scandinavian portrait of a highly cultured bourgeois family facing a terrible trauma with stoicism, humor and quite a bit of drinking, often in tastefully decorated rooms.

After premiering in the New Directors strand at San Sebastian, the drama takes a short break to play in the BFI London Film Festival in another competitive strand. Its accessible depth of feeling could help it win distribution beyond the Nordic realms.

Although Fanny appears in practically every scene in the film, the camera does occasionally break away to spend moments...

Sylvia Le Fanu, a Danish filmmaker, will premiere her first feature film “My Eternal Summer” at the San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain. The festival is known for showcasing new talent in movies from around the world. “My Eternal Summer” tells the story of a family spending one last summer together at their beach home. Le Fanu co-wrote the screenplay with Mads Lind Knudsen.

The film focuses on 15-year-old Fanny and her parents as they go about familiar routines like reading, swimming, and walks along the shore. However, beneath the surface is an unspoken sadness—the mother has a terminal illness and this will be her final summer with her family. “As they seek to treasure the time they have left together, the family navigates balancing cherishing the present and facing the future,” the synopsis says.

In a teaser trailer, Fanny asks her mother to describe herself in three words for a personality test.

Sylvia Le Fanu‘s feature debut My Eternal Summer, which is set to have its world premiere in the New Directors lineup of the San Sebastian International Film Festival, now has a teaser trailer.

“Fifteen-year-old Fanny and her parents retreat to their summer house, embracing familiar routines: reading, swimming, and walking,” a synopsis of the movie from the Copenhagen-based writer and director with British roots explains. “Beneath the quiet simplicity, an unspoken grief lingers — they know it will be her mother’s last summer. As they try to seize the days they have left together, the family navigates the delicate balance between cherishing the present and facing what’s to come.”

In the trailer, Fanny is shown asking her mother, for a personality test, which three words describe her best. After the mother proposes some options, Fanny’s father chimes in with an unwelcome contribution.

Le Fanu wrote the screenplay...

Exploding in Danish pubcaster Dr’s prime time slot on Sunday Oct. 2, “Carmen Curlers” attracted more viewers for Episode 2 than a political debate with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in the run-up to general elections, according to the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Newsletter.

Little wonder. Politicians promise to better their country. Inspired by the true story of Dane Arne Byborg’s launch of electric hair curlers, “Carmen Curlers,” set over 1963-69, shows how it really happened, as women began to enter the workforce and earn their own money and independence.

The two events are embodied by the series’ lead: Axel Byvang, played by Morten Hee Andersen (“Ride Upon the Storm”), who bears a striking resemblance to the real life early-thirties Byborg, and farmer’s wife Birthe Windfeld.

In the series’ early going, Axel happens on a newspaper advert appealing for financing backing for a new electric hair curler. Allowing...

The trailer-blazing hair curlers invention from Denmark that took over the world in the swinging 60s is the topic of the new event Danish TV show “Carmen Curlers”, just picked up by Dr Sales for global distribution. The distribution arm of Danish public broadcaster Dr is launching the eight-part period drama at Mipcom in Cannes.

The next event TV show from Dr Drama behind the cult titles “The Killing,” “Borgen” and more recently “Cry Wolf,” is currently filming at Dr’s own studios and in the Copenhagen area.

The strong creative team takes in writer-creator Mette Heeno (“Snow Angels”), concept director Natasha Arthy (“The Rain”) and episodic director Christian Tafdrup (“A Horrible Woman”), working alongside producer Stinna Lassen (“When the Dust Settles”).

A-list Danish actors enrolled in the multi-season period drama include Lars Ranthe, Morten Hee Andersen, Maria Rossing (“Snow Angels”), Signe Egholm and Rosalinde Mynster (“Darkness – Those Who Kill...

A daring character-driven crime drama about motherhood, “Snow Angels” is one of the highlights of this year’s Berlinale Series selection. Set in wintertime Stockholm, the gripping story follows three women — a mother, a policewoman and a child nurse — whose fates become intertwined following the disappearance of a 5-week-old infant.

The series is headlined by Josefin Asplund (“Vikings”), Eva Melander (“Border”), Maria Rossing (“Splitting Up Together”) and Ardalan Esmaili (“The Charmer”). Produced by Sweden’s Yellow Bird and Denmark’s Happy Ending Film, the six-part show is being represented in international markets by REinvent which unveiled a sale to Germany’s Ard Degeto at the start of market.

Variety talked to the strong female duo behind the gripping drama, the creator and writer Mette Heeno (“Splitting Up Together”), and the director Anna Zackrisson.

What’s the genesis of “Snow Angels”?

Mette Heeno: I wanted to explore the theme of motherhood...

The character-driven, six-part crime drama is created and written by Mette Heeno.

REinvent has sold its Berlinale Series selection Snow Angels (Snöänglar) to Ard Degeto for Germany.

The character-driven, six-part crime drama is created and written by Mette Heeno (Splitting Up Together), directed by Anna Zackrisson and produced by Georgie Mathew for Sweden’s Yellow Bird and Denmark’s Happy Ending Film.

The story, set during a cold winter in Stockholm, is about three women — a mother, a policewoman and a child nurse — connected to the case of a missing infant. The cast is led by Josefin Asplund (Vikings), Eva Melander...

Six series from Denmark, Britain, Israel, Australia and the Us populate the line-up.

The six titles that will be shown in the 2016 Berlinale Special Series, the television offshoot of the Berlin Film Festival’s (Feb 11-21) Specials programme, have been revealed.

Amongst the line-up is Susanne Bier’s adaptation of John Le Carre’s spy thriller The Night Manager [pictured], which stars Hugh Laurie, Tom Hiddleston, Olivia Colman, Elizabeth Debicki and Tom Hollander and will be broadcast by the BBC in the UK and AMC in the USA.

Sj Clarkson’s Love, Nina, which has a script from Nick Hornby, is also on the list. The comedic miniseries stars Helena Bonham Carter, Jason Watkins, Joshua McGuire and 2015 Screen Star of Tomorrow Faye Marsay. The BBC will broadcast the series in the UK.

Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul will have the international premiere of its second series at the festival.

Berlinale Special Series 2016:

Better Call Saul – Season...