Trine Dyrholm, Christian Slater, Dree Hemingway are set to star in Jesper Just’s Incidents of Intimacy, the second production in Zentropa’s new collection of Dogma25 pictures.
The initiative rebooting the Danish company’s 1995 Dogma Manifesto was first announced during the Cannes Film Festival last May.
Dyrholm will star as a woman who is unable to acknowledge and access her own feelings and constructs intimacy by stealing objects from people instead of getting close to them. After having emotional reactions through the objects, she files them in an archive of intimacy in her cupboard.
When a triangular relationship appears, it destabilizes her system, causing emotions to detach from their origins and circulate independently.
Gradually, the objects take on a life of their own and the control she’s been holding on to slips through her fingers. Her controlled world is turned into a site of emotional horror as a new reality dawns, created and dominated by autonomous feelings.
Johannes Lilleøre, Julie Agnete Vang, Laura Drasbæk and Michael Moritzen are also in the cast.
Dyrholm’s casting in Incidents of Intimacy marks a homecoming for the Danish actress who was part of the ensemble cast in Thomas Vinterberg’s The Celebration, the first film to be made under the original manifesto.
Now one of Denmark’s best known actresses, her credits since include Susanne Bier’s Academy Award-winning drama In A Better World, Nikolaj Arcel’s A Royal Affair, May el-Toukhy’s Queen of Hearts and in recent years in Magnus von Horn’s The Girl With The Needle and Jeanette Nordahl’s Beginnings.
Dyrholm will star opposite Slater who also has Zentropa connections having appeared in a supporting role Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac. Hemingway is known for her roles in Sean Baker’s Starlet, FX limited series Love Story and While We’re Young.
Incidents of Intimacy is the first feature film of Just, an acclaimed artist whose work has been shown worldwide.
He has just completed the the script in collaboration with Sissel Dalsgaard Thomsen, who was also the script writer behind Isabella Eklöf’s Kalak and Malene Choi’s The Quiet Migration.
Dogma25 is an initiative of recent Venice Golden Lion winner director May el-Toukhy (Woman Unknown), who will be one of the five directors making films under its rules alongside directors Milad Alami, Annika Berg, Eklöf and Just.
The five filmmakers are uniting on an artistic collective based on a shared manifesto and a new vow of chastity comprising ten new dogmas to protect the artistic integrity of feature film and create space for uncompromising cinematic storytelling. All five feature films will be produced by Zentropa.
The Danish Dogma25 projects are financed in a collaboration between Zentropa, DR, and Nordisk Film Distribution, with the addition of Netflix in the Nordics, constituting the core financing necessary to realize all five projects.
Additionally, Jesper Just’s Incidents of Intimacy is produced with support from the Danish Film Institute, The Eastern Denmark Film Fund and Nordisk Film & TV Fond.
The Dogma25 films are distributed by Nordisk Film Distribution and subsequently on Netflix in the Nordics and DR. TrustNordisk handles international sales.
