Mona Fastvold to make feature directorial debut with Sleepwalker

Educated in New York, where she starred in US director Don Roos’ The Other Woman (Love And Other Impossible Pursuits), Norwegian actress Mona Fastvold, who has directed around 20 music videos, will make her feature directorial debut with Sleepwalker (Søvngjengeren), which will shoot in the US from Oct 16.

Scripted by Fastvold with Brady Corbet, and produced by Karin Julsrud and Turid Øversveen for Norway’s 4½ Fiksjon on a $1.1m (NOK 6.2m) budget, the film depicts the relationship between two sisters, complicated by childhood conflicts. Sleepwalker is included in a package of international co-productions, which the Norwegian Film Institute has supported by $1.3m (NOK 7.35m).

In 2006, Norwegian writer Bjørn Olaf Johannessen won the NHK Sundance Filmmaker Award for the script of Nowhere Man (later filmed by Belgian director Parice Toye). German director Wim Wenders was a member of the jury, and he has now bought Johannessen’s screenplay for Everything Will Be Fine, which he will shoot from Feb 2 in Montreal and Quebec.

The family drama, which will film in 3D like the Wenders’ Pina, has so far confirmed Canadian actress Sarah Polley for the cast and will be produced by Gian-Piero Ringel for Wenders’ Neue Road Movies, with Norwegian producer Maria Ekerhovd of Mer Film.

The Norwegian institute also backed two Swedish directors’ projects - Jens Jonsson’s Quick Money (Snabba Cash, local co-producer: Fantefilm Fiksjon) and Ronnie Sandahl’s Liv (Hummelfilm) - and Danish director Jeppe Rønde’s feature debut The Quatraro Mystery (Quatraro-mysteriet), which will mainly be shot in Norway with Piraya Film as Norwegian partner.