Four Dutch minority co-productions backed by the Netherlands Film Fund

The Netherlands Film Fund is supporting three minority Dutch co-productions through its selective funding scheme: two feature films and one documentary. The Fund supports co-productions with a strong artistic view, an international festival and distribution appeal and a substantial creative and technical contribution from the Netherlands.

Furthermore the Fund supports the Norwegian-Dutch co-production Quest for Tonewood through its recently extended cooperation with the Norwegian Film Institute (NFI). The Norwegian Film Institute (NFI) and the Netherlands Film Fund agreed on the support of three majority Dutch documentary co-productions with Norway and vice versa in the coming two years.

The backed projects are:
March (feature film)
Director: Constantin Hatz
Script: Constantin Hatz
Producer: Kinescope Film (DE), co-producers: Witcraft Filmproduktion (AT), Isabella Films (NL)
Logline: In a small, stagnating, semi-deserted village, whose remaining population is submerged in unemployment, obscurity and despair, thirteen-year-old Daniel struggles to find meaning in the raw, forsaken nature around him and to bond with a few outcast human beings who seem to share his compassion.
Granted contribution: € 125,000

Reply to a Letter from Helga (feature film)
Director: Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir
Script: Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir, Ottó Geir Borg and Bergsveinn Birgisson
Producer: Zik Zak Filmworks (IS), co-producers: Ape&Bjørn (NO), Rotterdam Films (NL)
Logline: An aging farmer writes a letter to his lover, the woman he could have followed to the city decades before. Did he do the right thing in choosing his wife and country over love, or did he thereby betray his own heart?
Granted contribution: € 150,000

The Total Trust (documentary)
Directors: Yan Ting Yuen and Andreas Pichler
Producer: Filmtank (DE), co-producers: Frozen Frogs (FR), Witfilm (NL)
Logline: Can people become better citizens if they are constantly monitored and held accountable for their 'good' or 'bad' behaviour? China is trying to find out and is working on an elaborate system of ranking and digital control over its citizens. A big social experiment that seems to become reality, with far-reaching implications for China's own people.
Granted contribution: € 50,000

Backed project minority co-production with NFF + NFI:
Quest for Tonewood (documentary)
Director: Hans Lukas Hansen
Script: Hans Lukas Hansen
Producer: Norsk Fjernsyn (NO), co-producer: BALDR film (NL)
Logline: In certain alpine forests one might find special trees that are worth their weight in gold. Their value lies the unique ability of the wood to amplify sound, making it a prerequisite for the best string instruments in the world.

Tonewood they call it, a gift of trees so rare, that grow in places so secret and remote, that finding the perfect one – can be the quest of a lifetime.
Granted contribution: € 30,000

Click here to read more about the selective funding scheme for minority co-productions with the Netherlands.

Still: Quest for Tone