More than a year after receiving $1m (NOK7.3m) in productionsupport from the Norwegian Film Fund, Pakistani-Norwegian filmmaker KhalidHussain has finally got his new film Import-Export off the ground with $330,000 from Eurimages.
It is the first film to be set in the Pakistani community inOslo, and shoots from Oct 11 with newcomers Iram Haq and Bjoernar Liseth Teigenin the leads.
The romantic comedy sees a Norwegian falling in love with aPakistani girl who has already been promised to her cousin. However, theNorwegian is willing to convert to Islam and ready to try and change thefamily's view of mixed marriages.
Hussain wrote the novel Pakkis, which was later turned into a play, at the age of16, and he has since written and directed a number of shorts as well as twoPakistani features Dharkan and JanJan Pakistan.
The $2.5m Import-Exportis his biggest project so far. It is produced by Egil Oedegaard's FilmhusetProduksjoner in collaboration with Denmark's Zentropa Entertainment andSweden's Illusion Film, and previously also attracted support from the NordicFilm & TV Fund. Scandinavian Entertainment Group (SEG) will handle thelocal release in autumn 2005.
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