En værdig mand

Denmark

Synopsis

Night after night Erik works alone in his bakery. His only company is the late-night radio show, which he persistently attempts to get through to to be honoured “Joker of the Week”. He has gradually become more and more distant to his family, and all his efforts to re-establish the connection seem in vain. A growing depression hurls Erik into a tailspin, that in the end culminates in a desperate cry for help.

Director's Biography

An award-winning director from Denmark, Kristian Håskjold grew up on the Danish island Funen, but now lives in Copenhagen. His last two short films FOREVER NOW and A WORTHY MAN have been screened at 50 festivals all over the world. FOREVER NOW has won 10 awards, among them the Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Short at the internationally well-respected festival SXSW in 2017. In the same year, Kristian was also nominated for Adobe's Nordic Creative Talent Award. A WORTHY MAN won Best European Short Film at Leuven International Short Film Festival 2018, was long-listed to the European Film Awards 2019 and was thereby qualified for submission to The Academy Awards in 2020.

Filmography:
2019 - CHEMO BRAIN, tv show
2019 - CROCODILE TEARS, short
2018 - A WORTHY MAN, short
2017 - FOREVER NOW, short
2015 - WELCOME TO PARADISE, short
2013 - RECEPTION, short

Festivals

Candidate selected at Leuven International Short Film Festival

Interview

How long did it take to make your short? Was it difficult to get financing?
I’m studying at the Danish film school SUPER16, which is a community of filmmakers that attend the education for a period of three years and consists of directors, scriptwriters and producers. Each year 6 teams are formed, and 6 films are made. A WORTHY MAN was my first-year production at SUPER16 and was made in collaboration with my producer Caroline Steenberg Dam and scriptwriter Marianne Lentz. We had very limited time to make the film, from finding an idea we all could see ourselves doing and developing in August 2017 to shooting and post producing the film before the fixed premiere date in April 2018. It was a very intense process, but I’m really happy with the final product.

Super16 does not receive any governmental subsidies and survives with the economic support from the national film industry funds and contributions. That means that we had to finance most of the films budget ourselves. Our Collaborators are Nordisk Film, Spar Nord, Det Obelske Familiefond, Dansk Skuespillerforbund whilst the film was supported by the talent program Filmworkshop CPH, the Danish Writers Guilt (Danske Dramatikere), Animation workshop Viborg and several private financier’s and sponsors. It wasn’t easy to finance the film with the limited time we had, but we made it work. And since it was a student film, the entire crew worked on the production pro bono. I’m insanely grateful for that!

Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “European cinema community”?
In general, I think there’s a great cinematic community in Europe – at least that’s my experience from meeting industry people at the different festivals around the world. Compared to the States, I of course believe that it sometimes can be challenging in Europe with all the language boundaries in doing co-productions, but I think it’s great that it’s still developing.

If you owned a theatre for one night, which films would you screen?
It’s not a film, but I would most likely make a cavalcade of all episodes of the tv show THE KNICK by Steven Soderbergh. It needs to be seen by more people. The style of the show has been a big inspiration for me the last couple of years.

What is your next project?
I got some different projects in the making. First of all, I’m still studying at the Danish film school SUPER16, where we are pretty close to shooting our mid-term production. It has the Danish working title ISSLAG (English: ICE STORM). I’m writing it with scriptwriter Christina Øster and it is produced by Andreas Bak at Zentropa Entertainment. It’s a psychological drama about the hard times of a reunion between a father and his son – and the difficulties of it being arranged by the father’s new girlfriend.

Besides that, I’m actually in the early stages of writing the short film THE END OF MY WORLD with scriptwriter Malthe Miehe-Renard, together with American producer Kara Durrett and American DoP Lowell A. Meyer, which we are planning on shooting in the States later this year. I met Kara and Lowell at SXSW in 2017, and we’ve wanted to work together ever since. It’s a story about a cultic family, where the mom in a dramatic moment is forced to make a choice between her kids or her belief.
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Cast & Crew

Directed by: Kristian Håskjold

Written by: Marianne Lentz

Produced by: Caroline Steenberg Dam

Cinematography: Rasmus Hasle Jørgensen

Editing: Allan Funch

Production Design: Eva Lendorph

Costume Design: Rebecca Sophia Morris Sigaard

Make-Up & Hair: Lilli Thavapee Tollerup

Original Score: Jesper Ankarfeldt

Sound: Christian Munk Scheuer

Visual Effects: Björn Gromoll, Pierre Ventrilla

Cast: Troels Lyby (Erik), Marina Bouras (Hanne), Milo Campanale (Rune)

Nominations and Awards

  • Short Film Candidates 2019