Press release 10.08.2010: Princess was selected to compete at a festival in Montréal and as opening film in Haugesund.
Arto Halonen's Princess has been selected to the World Film Festival in Montréal, Canada. The festival is North America's only A-list competitive festival, and Princess will be competing in its series for feature length debut films. In Europe, A-list competitive festivals include the Cannes, Berlin and Venice film festivals, amongst others.
Princess has also been selected as the opening film of the Norwegian Film Festival's New Nordic Films programme in Haugesund. New Nordic Films is an event directed at film professionals, and presents the most internationally interesting new film from the Nordic countries. The programme includes only 22 films, and features two opening films, the other one being the Swedish Sound of Noise, which was featured at the Cannes festival earlier in the year.
Princess is based on real-life events and a real person. Cabaret dancer Anna Lappalainen (Katja Kukkola), drifting from one foster home to another, ends up in psychiatric care and soon the hospital staff and her fellow patients see that she’s suffering from severe d elusions. She claims to be “Princess”, a member of the English royal family from Buckingham Palace. Although Princess herself numbers among the patients, helping others becomes her life mission. Her court is comprised of her lady-in-waiting Christina von Heyroth (Krista Kosonen), and a group of fellow patients (Peter Franzén and Pirkka-Pekka Petelius, amongst others). Her jurisdiction extends all the way to Kellokoski village and the manager of the local bank (Tapio Liinoja). From the psychiatric hospital, this broken woman finds her true home and builds a family. The film's other roles feature Samuli Edelmann, Paula Vesala, Irma Junnilainen, Paavo Westerberg and Antti Litja.
Inspired by the life of Anna Lappalainen, Princess tells the moving story of an individual, judged to be ill by society, whose lovable personality heals and captures the hearts of those around her. Princess is the fiction film debut of the award-winning documentarist Arto Halonen (director of Shadow of the Holy Book, Pavlov’s Dogs and The Magnetic Man). The film was written by Arto Halonen, Pirjo Toikka and Paavo Westerberg.
The film will receive its Finnish cinematic premiere on 10th September 2010, and is distributed in Finland by Sandrew Metronome Distribution Finland.
Montréal World Film Festival:
http://www.ffm-montreal.org/
New Nordic Films:
http://www.filmweb.no/filmfestivalen/2010/
Further information:
Liisa Lehmusto, publicist, Sandrew Metronome Distribution Finland Oy
Eteläesplanadi 24 a, 6. krs : 00130 Helsinki : Finland
tel +358 9 8866 7707 : cell +358 50 358 5488
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