Talented Jonas Risvig to start shooting his debut film KONTRA

Danish director Jonas Risvig’s first feature film KONTRA is a generational portrait of today’s youth and starts shooting on September 4th.

Jonas Risvig alongside the two female leads in KONTRA: Andrea Hjejle (on the left) and Anna Lehmann (on the right)

Denmark’s leading director in the youth series format, 29-year-old Jonas Risvig, is taking the next step in his career and is now creating his most ambitious project to date, his first feature film KONTRA.

The self-taught film director and screenwriter has previously won awards for documentaries, music videos and short films since his debut at the age of 22 in 2015. In recent years, however, Risvig has quickly established himself as Denmark’s best youth portraitist with series such as CENTRUM, BOYS, SALSA, ZUSA, GRÆNSER and FLOKKEN.

KONTRA is an authentic generational portrait of today’s youth. It’s a drama about this time of age that we live in and being young for better or worse. A life where friendship, partying and falling in love are constantly challenged by social media, hierarchies and massive expectations from society.

Jonas has drawn inspiration for KONTRA through workshops, research, and conversations with over 100 young people over the past year. He always strives for authenticity and credibility and states:

“KONTRA will be the culmination of all the series I’ve created, as well as a new chapter for me as a director. It dares to go places where parents will be shocked, while young people hopefully will finally feel seen. Not many people dare to talk about the things this film is about…”.

KONTRA is about the two outsiders FANNY (18) and LILJA (18), whose biggest wish is to become popular at their high school. This is the start of a fast-paced journey in search of a new identity that can open doors to sex, parties and love. But popularity comes at a price and the girls realize that the bigger the facade you hide behind, the further you get from your true self.

The two major lead roles of Fanny and Lilja, are the two young debutantes Andrea Hjejle and Anna Lehmann, while the large cast around them consists of a mix of debutantes and former cast members from Jonas Risvig’s tv-series.

KONTRA is supported by the Danish Film Institute with consultant Lotte Svendsen and FilmFyn in collaboration with Scanbox Entertainment and the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. The film is distributed by Scanbox Entertainment and produced by Jasmine Hermann Naghizadeh at Nimbus Film.

KONTRA will premiere in Danish cinemas on September 19th, 2024.

Read more about the news at: Soundvenue