Kon-Tiki (Kon-Tiki)
Contemporary World Cinema
Joachim Roenning, Espen Sandberg / Feature Narrative / Norway, Denmark, United Kingdom / 2012 / 119 min / Colour / DCP
In English, Norwegian / Arabic, English subtitles
MENA Premiere
Synopsis
In ‘Kon-Tiki’, co-directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg – whose ‘Max Manus’ was a smash hit at the Norwegian box office in 2009 – capture all the danger, excitement and sheer natural beauty of a true Man-versus-Nature adventure. When Norwegian scientist and ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl developed the now widely accepted theory that the peoples of Polynesia first migrated from South America and not, as previously believed, from Asia, the international scientific community openly mocked him. Refusing to be deterred in his quest to prove his hypothesis – not even by the notable fact that he could not swim – he embarked on one of history’s most celebrated scientific adventures. In 1947, Heyerdahl built a raft of balsa wood and travelled across the open seas from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands, thereby demonstrating the plausibility of his theory – and changing the history books forever.
About the Directors
Joachim Roenning and Espen Sandberg were born a year apart – Roenning in 1972, Sandberg in 1971 – in Rønsberg, Norway, and studied film together in Stockholm. They make commercials under the joint professional name of Roenberg and have previously directed two feature films together: ‘Bandidas’ (2006), and the wartime action movie ‘Max Manus’, which was a major hit in 2008 and won seven Amandas, Norway’s Academy Awards.
Credits
- Director
- Joachim Roenning, Espen Sandberg
- Screenwriter
- Petter Skavlan
- Producer
- Jeremy Thomas, Aage Aaberge
- Editor
- Per-Erik Eriksen
- Production Designer
- Karl Juliusson
- Composer
- Johan Söderqvist
- Cinematographer
- Geir Hartly Andreassen
- Sound
- Baard H. Ingebretsen and Tormod Ringnes
- Cast
- Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen, Anders Baasmo Christiansen, Gustaf Skarsgård, Odd Magnus Williamson, Tobias Santelmann, Jakob Oftebro