When eleven year old Maria loses her little brother PeeWee to cancer, her entire world appears to disintegrate. Her mother is traumatized by the death, retreating into a deep depression. Her father struggles with his own grief and his attempts to keep the family emotionally afloat. As Maria is a child, she misinterprets her mother's melancholy to mean that she no longer loves Maria now that PeeWee is gone, holding this lonely secret in her heart.

Thinking it might lift her spirits, Maria's father sends Maria to visit her grandparents for summer holiday. He wants to shield her from her mother's worsening depression. While at her grandparents, the withdrawn Maria meets Jacob, also an eleven year old but with a completely different attitude about life and loss.

Jacob is an outgoing, adventurous, wisecracking latch-key kid with wisdom way beyond his tender years. Through their budding friendship, he pulls Maria out of her shell and enables her to find the strength and the courage to reach out to her mother so they can mourn and heal together.

Touching and heartwarming, ONLY CLOUDS MOVE THE STARS is based an the award-winning Norwegian novel by the film's director, Torun Lian. In 1998, the film won both the Grand Prize for Best Feature Film and the Nordic Film Institute's Award for Best Film for Children and Young People at the Lübeck Nordic Film Days in Germany. The film also received an honorable mention from the Church Jury at Lübeck. At the 1998 Nordic Children's Film Festival in Reykjavik, Iceland, ONLY CLOUDS MOVE THE STARS was awarded the Grand Prize for Best Feature Film. The film is also the official Norwegian entry for Best Foreign Language Film for the 1998 Academy Awards®.

TORUN LIAN (Writer/Director) makes her directorial feature film debut with ONLY CLOUDS MOVE THE STARS. During the last ten years, she has written for theatre, film and TV in Norway. In 1991, Lian wrote and directed the short film, THERE IS SOMEONE EVEN SMALLER THAN ANNA. She is best known for "Frida," the Norwegian children's TV series which was turned into a very popular international feature film, directed by Berit Nesheim. Nesheim's second feature, THE OTHER SIDE OF SUNDAY, was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film for the 1996 Academy Awards®.

JOHN M. JACOBSEN (Producer) has produced more than a dozen films over the past 15 years including the Lapp saga PATHFINDER which was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film in 1987. For the Walt Disney Company, he produced SHIPWRECKED in 1991. His 1993 Norwegian hit HODET OVER VANNET was remade in 1996 as Fine Line's HEAD ABOVE WATER, starring Cameron Diaz and Harvey Keitel; Jacobsen also served as producer on the remake. Previously, he had a 25 year career as a prominent film distributor before segueing into producing full-time. The current head of the Norwegian Film and TV Producers Association, Jacobsen has been honored for his work on behalf of the local industry.

SVEIN KRÖVEL (Director of Photography) is considered one of Norway's leading cinematographers. Over his 25 year career, Krövel has served as the director of photography on more than two hundred short subjects and a large number of feature films. In 1989, he was awarded the most prestigious Norwegian cinematographer's award for his work on the feature film KARACHI. Krövel also won an Emmy for his cinematography on the Lillihammer Winter Olympics documentary "16 Days of Glory."