2016 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Tobias Lindholm’s A War

Despite his lengthy filmography as a scribe (mostly Thomas Vinterberg’s righthand man Submarino, The Hunt and upcoming The Commune) and his previous outings as a filmmaker in the grizzly R (2010) and gritty A Hijacking (2012), Tobias Lindholm hasn’t been part of the make-up of the festival in terms of exhibiting a film there, but the Dane has been present as a creative advisor specifically at the January Screenwriters Lab (2014) and June Screenwriters Lab (2015). Rejoining his muse actor Pilou Asbæk, his third film which Variety called “engrossing, impeccably sensitive Afghanistan War drama makes good on the promise of,” and THR suggested that “complexity emerges through a combination of careful writing and a little work on the viewers’ part“) received coin support via the 2014 Sundance Institute/Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award and would eventually land on the Lido in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section. Denmark’s official selection for the Oscar’s best foreign picture category, the folks at Magnolia Pictures actually cuffed A War last May during Cannes and will be releasing it on February 12th and as of yet, it hasn’t had its North American premiere. With the Spotlight section featuring films of this caliber, odds are good for a Park City showing.

Gist: Company commander Claus Michael Pedersen and his men are stationed in an Afghan province. Meanwhile back in Denmark Claus’ wife Maria is trying to hold everyday life together with a husband at war and three children missing their father. During a routine mission, the soldiers are caught in heavy crossfire and in order to save his men, Claus makes a decision that has grave consequences for him and his family back home.

Production Co./Producers: Produced by Rene Ezra and Tomas Radoor (Northwest). Executive producers: Henrik Zein, Lena Haugaard, Ron Halpern, Olivier Courson.

Prediction: Spotlight section.

U.S. Distributor: Magnolia Pictures.

[related]2016 Sundance Film Festival Predictions[/related]