EXCLUSIVE: Here’s your first look at Totem Films’ San Sebastian competition title Kalak from Swedish filmmaker Isabella Eklöf.
An autobiographical adaptation of Kim Leine’s novel of the same name, the film stars Emil Johnsen (Corridor) as Jan and features a Swedish, Danish, and Greenlandic cast that includes Asta Kamma August (The Hypnosis) as Lærke, Connie Kristoffersen as Ella, Vigga Tukula as Nikoline, Berda Larsen as Karina and Søren Hellerup (Lovely) as Jan’s Father.
Plot follows Jan, who is on the run from himself after being sexually abused by his father. Living in Greenland with his little family, he yearns to be a part of the open, collectivist culture and become a Kalak, a “dirty Greenlander.”
The film was produced by Manna Films in Denmark. Maria Møller Kjeldgaard serves as producer on the pic, with co-producers including Norwegian Mer Film, Swedish Momento Film and Film I VӒST, Finnish MADE, Dutch Lemming Film, and Greenlandic Polarama Greenland.
Heads of departments include director of photography Nadim Carlsen (Border), production designer Josephine Farsø (Holiday), sound editing Mark Glynne (Beyond Sleep), costume designer Sascha Valbjørn (The Venus Effect), and Eklöf co-edited with Anna Eborn (Transnistra).
Eklöf is best known for her feature debut Holiday, which played Sundance in 2018. She co-wrote the feature Border with Ali Abbasi, which debuted at Cannes in 2018. Her other directorial credits include two episodes of AppleTV+’s The Servent and four episodes of HBO’s Industry.
Check out the full Kalak trailer above.
