Victoria Film Festival organizers have confirmed that a new film from Oscar-winning Danish director Anders Thomas Jensen has been added to the roster for the 2016 festival running Feb. 5-14.
Mads Mikkelsen stars in Men & Chicken, Jensen’s outlandish satire about two dysfunctional brothers who travel to a rundown mansion on a remote island to meet their biological father and three eccentric siblings.
All manner of weirdness ensues after the brothers, a depressed academic and a troubled loner, learn they were the offspring of someone they never met.
Festival director Kathy Kay has been pursuing Mikkelsen as a festival guest for years and says while he has expressed a willingness to come, his schedule hasn’t yet permitted it.
The Danish actor, who is shooting Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, is one of the festival’s most popular attractions. Since he appeared in Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, his first Victoria Film Festival entry, the actor best known in North America for his work on TV’s Hannibal and as Le Chiffre in Casino Royale has been seen at the festival in Adam’s Apples, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky and Flame and Citron.
Five Nights in Maine, Maris Curran’s feature debut about the nature of grief starring David Oyelowo (Selma), Dianne Wiest (Bullets Over Broadway) and Rosie Perez (Fearless), has also been added.
Other films just announced include Driving with Selvi, a documentary about a woman who escapes a violent childhood marriage and becomes South India’s first female taxi driver, and Virgin Mountain, Icelandic director Dagur Kari’s new film about a middle-aged man forced to leave his comfort zone after his mother gives him square-dancing lessons as a gift.
Hirokazu Koreeda, who brought us last year’s Like Father, Like Son, will also be represented with Our Little Sister, about three sisters who learn they have a teenage stepsister after their estranged father’s death.
Program guides for the 10-day festival will be released online and in print on Jan. 6.
The 22nd annual festival will screen 150 films, with special programs including Canadian Wave, French Canadian Wave, Indigenous, Asian and World Perspective.
Christmas gift vouchers for festival tickets and specialty packages are available from the festival office, 1215 Blanshard St., from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sales of Christmas vouchers end today.
For more information visit the festival’s website at victoriafilmfestival.com, call 250-389-0444 or email boxoffice@victoriafilmfestival.com