Susanne Bier
Susanne Bier directed the award-winning features Freud Leaving Home (1990), Family Matters (1993), Like it Never was Before (1995), Credo (1997), and The One and Only (1999), which won a whole host of Danish Film Academy and Danish film critics' awards. With record box-office sales The One and Only is one of the 5 most popular Danish feature films of all time. After this blockbuster success Susanne Bier directed Once in a Lifetime (2000), and most recently the highly acclaimed Dogma success Open Hearts (2002), which sold over half a million tickets and won no less than five Danish film awards, including best Danish film. Open Hearts was selected for San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain, Sundance Film Festival in the US, and Toronto Film Festival in Canada. As well as directing feature films Susanne Bier also works with short film, music videos and commercials.
Director's Comments
In Brothers, international conflicts that we all know about from the papers suddenly and tangibly break into everyday life, causing change. I find it fascinating how the everyday is suddenly changed by more or less random events, and how we relate to such violent changes. Portraying the Danish military presence in Afghanistan gives the film a political aspect, but it's mainly a love story about the conditions of love in our contemporary life style. The story is about the emotions linked to these events and for me, film is about describing emotions and showing feelings.
I like to get under the skin of my characters, which is why both the serious and the funny side of life are central in my films. It was important for me that the brutality in Brothers stood in contrast to human warmth, tenderness and intimacy. Both sides exist, and I couldn't have described the one without the other, I wouldn't want to. My goal is to acknowledge reality and find hope there, because no matter how brutal that reality is humour is still an undeniable part of life and what keeps us human.
CONNIE NIELSEN - plays Sara
When Connie Nielsen hit the big screen as Lucilla in the award winning, all-star movie Gladiator (2001) her name was instantly on everyone's lips in Denmark. Her real breakthrough came in 1997, when she starred opposite Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves in Devil's Advocate, and her acting talent hasn't gone unnoticed in films like Rushmore (1998) with Bill Murray, Permanent Midnight (1998) with Ben Stiller, Innocents (2000) with Jean Hughes Angleade, and Mission to Mars (2000) with Tim Robbins. Connie Nielsen also starred alongside Chloe Sevigny and Gina Gershon in Demonlover (2002), which was the focus of considerable attention at Cannes Film Festival the same year.
Connie Nielsen has starred in One Hour Photo (2002) with Robin Williams, The Hunted (2003) with Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro, Basic (2003) with John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson and recently Ghost Soldiers (2004), starring alongside Benjamin Bratt, Joseph Fiennes and James Franco.
Connie Nielsen left Denmark for Paris when she was 18 to follow her dream of being an actress, a quest that has taken her to places like Rome, Milan and South Africa. As well as a successful actress, Connie Nielsen is also a talented singer and dancer and speaks fluent English, German, Danish, Swedish, French and Italian. Connie Nielsen currently lives in New York.
Her role as Sarah in BROTHERS is her Danish feature debut.
ULRICH THOMSEN - plays Michael
Ulrich Thomsen graduated from the National School of Drama in 1993. He began his film career playing a violent Hell's Angel in Ole Bornedal's Nightwatch (1994) and had his first major film role in Niels Arden Oplev's Portland (1996). In the same year he had his first leading role in Thomas Vinterberg's The Biggest Heroes, a role for which he was awarded a Danish Film Academy award. In 1998 Ulrich Thomsen had his international breakthrough as Christian in Thomas Vinterberg's highly acclaimed, award winning feature The Celebration (1998), a role for which he received both a Danish Film Academy award and the Danish film critics' Bodil. Subsequent to this success Ulrich Thomsen acted in the James Bond film The World is not Enough (1999).
Ulrich Thomsen has also starred in Anders Thomas Jensen's Oscar, winning short Election Night (1998), Flickering Lights (2000), and the English feature Killing me Softly (2002), the cast of which included Heather Graham and Joseph Fiennes. In Inheritance (2003) he played the leading role of Christoffer, who inherits the family steel works, a role for which he was again awarded both a Danish Film Academy award and the Danish film critics' Bodil.
Recently Ulrich Thomsen has starred in Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven with Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson and Jeremy Irons, which is slated for release in 2005.
NIKOLAJ LIE KAAS - plays Jannik
Since the early 90s Nikolaj Lie Kaas has had a remarkable career on both stage and screen. He made his debut at the age of 17 in Soren Kragh-Jacobsen's The Boys from St. Petri (1991), a role for which he was awarded both a Danish Film Academy award and the Danish film critics' Bodil. In 1994 he starred in Erik Clausen's screen adaptation of Carl Nielsen's autobiography My Childhood Symphony.
Nikolaj Lie Kaas graduated from The National School of Drama in 1998, the year he starred in Lars von Trier's Dogma film The Idiots - a role for which he was awarded yet another Bodil.
On stage Nikolaj Lie Kaas has acted at The Royal Theatre in classics like Peer Gynt (2001), for which he received a Reumert award for best leading role, as well as Ivanhoe (2003).
Nikolaj Lie Kaas has acted in numerous Danish films, including In China They Eat Dogs (1999) and Flickering Lights (2000), and he received a Danish Film Academy award for the leading role in Truly Human (2001). Recently Nikolaj Lie Kaas starred in the Susanne Bier's blockbuster Open Hearts (2002) for which he received his second Danish Film Academy award and third Danish film critics' Bodil. |
