Arn - The Knight Templar

ARN - THE KNIGHT TEMPLAR

(aka Tempelriddarren)

Sweden, 2007, 139 min.

director.gif (905 bytes) Peter Flinth

CAST

Joakim Nätterqvist.- Arn
Sofia Helin - Cecilia Algotsdotter
Stellan Skarsgård - Birger Brosa
Vincent Perez - Brother Guilbert
Simon Callow - Father Henry
Bibi Andersson - Mother Rikissa
Michael Nyqvist - Magnus Folkesson

PREMIERED

Christmas Day 2007

SYNOPSIS

Arn Magnussson is born in 1150 on Arnas farm in West Gothia in the western part of Sweden. He grows up to become an educated young man and a skilled swordsman. He meets Cecilia, the love of his life, but a cruel and jealous world forces them apart. Cecilia is imprisoned in a monastery and Arn is sent away as a Knight Templar to the Holy Land, where war is raging between Christians and Muslims. They both have to fight to survive, they have to learn how to confront evil and overcome physical hardship. Their painful separation causes their faith in God and his goodness to waver – though not their faith in each other and their confidence that they will one day be reunited.

When Arn returns home he has to fight for his love and what has become his life’s mission: to unite Sweden into one kingdom.

View photos from Cannes Film Festival 2007

View photos from ARN premieres in Skara and Stockholm - December 17 & 19, 2007

PRODUCTION NOTES:

The film production was headed by Svensk Filmindustri in conjunction with Film i Väst, TV4 (Sweden), Danmarks Radio (Denmark), YLE (Finland), TV 2 (Norway) and Telepool (Germany). With a total budget of around $30,000,000 for the whole production, it's the most expensive production in Scandinavian film history. SVT originally was one of the biggest sponsors of the project, but they pulled out and their role as a major sponsor was taken over by TV4. The Swedish parts of the film are filmed mostly in the province of Västergötland, while the foreign scenes are filmed in Morocco and Scotland.

PRODUCTION IMAGES:

Variety:
Svensk’s “Arn - The Knight Templar” achieved the biggest opening ever for a Swedish picture when it was unwrapped on Christmas Day. In its first two days, the film pulled in 160,310 admissions and a gross of $2,240,000 from 207 prints. With a budget of $33 million, the “Arn” double bill is Scandinavia’s most expensive production ever. The two features - the second of which will be released in the fall - are about a Swedish knight who fights in the Crusades and then returns home to become a national leader. There will also be a TV series, to be aired in Sweden by pubcaster TV4 in 2009, and an international feature version, hewn from the two Swedish pics. The international version has been sold to 10 countries, among them Russia, China and Brazil. Swedish distrib and shingle Svensk and sales agent Telepool will continue to shop the film at Berlin and Cannes. Commenting on the opening box office figures, producer Valdemar Bergendahl told Variety: “It is fantastic. We had expected high figures, but this exceeds our expectations.”

The Swedish reviews ranged from positive to negative with the majority falling somewhere in-between. Bergendal said: “It was expected. But I’m happy with all the copy that has been written about the film. It has shown what great interest there is in it.”

MOVIE STILLS: