Nils Gaup makes a come-back
by Annika Pham
The Norwegian director of Sami origin who made the 1987 Oscar nominated film The Pathfinders, the first Sami-language feature film and –arguably- Norwegian cinema’s greatest breakthrough, is back on familiar grounds with the film The Kautokeino Rebellion (Kautokeinoopprøret) set to start filming in February 2006.
The NOK50m (€ 6.38m) project which just received a NOK 12m (€ 1.53m) grant from the Norwegian Film Fund (NFF), will be one of the most ambitious Nordic co-productions of 2006, produced by Rubicon TV in Norway in co-production with Borealis Productions (Norway), FilmLance International (Sweden) and Metronome (Denmark). The film co-scripted by Gaup with Nils Aslak Eira, Reidar Jönsson and Pelone Wahl, is very close to the director who himself was born in the small town of Kautokeino in the Northern part of Norway.
Set during the conflict between the Sami people and the Norwegian government representatives in the mid 19th century, the film focuses on the famous 1852 Kautokeino rebellion and its tragic consequences, including the be-heading of two of its leaders in 1854.
"Nils Gaup is one of the descendants of those who took part in the rebellion, and he has written an uncompromising Sami report of the repression," says Nikolaj Frobenius, feature film consultant for the NFF.
Although casting is still under way, key crew members will include the Norwegian Director of photography Philip Øgaard (Kitchen Stories) and the Icelandic Set designer Karl Juliusson who previously worked with Gaup on his 1999 film Misery Harbour and more recently on Thomas Vinterberg’s Dear Wendy.
Kautokeino’s Rebellion will be released in Norway by Paramount Pictures with a domestic release set for April 1rst, 2007.
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