1001 GRAM by Hamer at Toronto Film Festival

Norwegian director Bent Hamer’s new feature joins Liv Ullmann’s Miss Julie for world premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival
 
Norwegian director Bent Hamer’s new drama, 1001 Grams (1001 gram), starring Ane Dahl Torp, will have its world premiere in the Masters sidebar for “the most inspiring, audacious, and original filmmakers working in cinema today” at the 39th Toronto International Film Festival, which runs between 4-14 September.
 
1001 Grams follows a recently divorced, work-obsessed woman scientist in her late 30s, who goes to a seminar in Paris about the actual weight of the kilogram. She falls in love with a French colleague, and now her own measurement of disappointment, grief, and – not least – love ends up on the scales.
 
Co-starring Stein Winge, Per Christian Ellefsen, Laurent Stocker, Hildegunn Riise, the film was written, directed and produced by Hamer for his own BulBul Film, with France’s Slot Machine and Germany’s Pandora Filmproduktion. It was photographed by John Christian Rosenlund, and John Erik Kaada signed the musical score.
 
Hamer is a Toronto regular – his previous festival participations include Eggs (1995), which won the international critics’ FIPRESCI award; Water Easy Reach (En dag til i solen/1998); Kitchen Stories (Salmer fra kjøkkenet/2003); and Home for Christmas (Hjem til jul/2010).
 
“I am especially delighted that my film will have its world premiere in the Masters selection,” explained Hamer, whose seventh feature in Toronto will be in the company of new films by, ao, UK director Michael Winterbottom, French director Jean-Luc Godard and Swedish director Roy Andersson.
 
Last year Hamer received an Honorary Amanda, Norway’s national film prize, for his work. In Toronto – one of the world’s largest festivals, screening more than 300 films from 60 countries – 1001 Grams will be marketed by France’s Les Films du Losange. Norsk Filmdistribusjon will release it domestically on 26 September.