Following A New Kind of Wilderness, which won the Sundance Documentary Awards Jury Prize in 2024 and was sold in multiple territories including Germany, France (ZDF/Arte), the US (POV/PBS) and the UK (Met Films), DR Sales has once again partnered with Norwegian filmmaker Silje Evensmo Jacobsen on the new documentary, The Mystery Package, Variety has learned exclusively.
The Danish documentary will be released this week at Cannes’ content market Mipcom.
“Silje Evensmo Jacobsen is a rare talent in the documentary world,” said Pernille Munk Skydsgaard, DR Sales Director. “Her ability to bridge the authenticity of true cinema to an art form that resembles fiction makes us see her as a unique director who captivates life on the precise level of her characters.
With Mystery Package, she managed to invent a whole new genre: the Christmas adventure documentary family film. “We are making the case that this film is an instant Christmas classic and will be shown on all platforms for many Christmases to come,” Skysgaard commented.
According to DR Sales, “Mystery Package” is “a story about childhood curiosities, Christmas traditions, and the greatest mysteries of life itself, with its unexpected twists and turns. At the heart of this stranger-than-fiction story is It’s a mysterious package that the Sandnes family in Arendal has received every Christmas for the past 20 years, and it contains a gift for everyone. It contains a handwritten message from an unknown person: “Merry Christmas from all of us in Arendal.” Sender.
Together with their father Magnus, one of the first recipients of the package, their mother, and Cilliers himself, the film’s director, the children Edre (9 years old) and Brage (6 years old) decide to reveal the secret by Christmas Eve.
mystery package
A5 film provided
“What begins as a playful search soon takes a deeper turn,” the synopsis reads, as the young detectives discover that the first package arrived in the year their father’s older brother, Hans Petter, committed suicide. “Through the eyes of children, this investigation becomes both a quirky detective story and a tender exploration of family memory, grief, and the bonds that make us who we are,” the statement said.
Jacobsen told Variety that he had been toying with the idea of turning this unique story of a mysterious Christmas package into a film for several years, but was reluctant to point the camera at his own family. Until two years ago, my daughter said, “I’m going to play detective and find out who sent the Christmas package.” “Then it became something completely different,” says Jacobsen, who was immediately drawn to the idea of following children in this “funny and weird” investigation and making a true Christmas movie for them and their families.
“I didn’t know anything myself,” insists the filmmaker, agreeing to stand in front of the camera with his young children, truly participating in the investigation and allowing the world of the film to gradually take shape. “We ran into a lot of dead ends, but of course we didn’t know it was going to be a dead end. That was really important.”
However, she set a precise time frame for the shoot so as not to interfere too much with her family life and dynamic activities. “For three weeks before Christmas last year, I decided to film almost everything every day. By limiting my time, I was able to move the story forward in real time and still be a mom without the constant urge to film every second of the day,” she explained.
The picture, currently in the editing room, was created for A5 film by Jacobsen and Mari Bakke Riese (The New Wilderness) in collaboration with Sweden’s Ballard Film.
“I had seen their amazing film ‘The Gullspång Miracle’ (winner of the 2023 Tribeca Award for Best Editing) and knew they were great storytellers and a perfect fit for this project,” Jacobsen added.
The documentary is expected to be released in early 2026.
At Mipcom, DR Sales’ doc slate also includes festival hit “The Lives of My Father,” Cannes Series 2025 Best Documentary Series, Danish Domestic Robert Award 2025 Best Documentary Series “The Black Swan,” and this year’s Sundance World Documentary Special Jury Prize winner “Mr. Nobody Against Putin.”
The company’s drama slate includes the Norwegian hospital drama “Still Breathing,” produced by powerhouse Rubicon (HBO’s “Beforeigners”) for NRK, and the Swedish legal thriller “Burden of Justice,” produced by Strive Studios (“Paradise City,” “Snubber Cash”) for SVT, with both series set to arrive in 2026.
“We’re looking forward to an intense day at Mipcom immediately after MIA, meeting with broadcasters and producers to announce new drama series and a new line-up of documentaries. And for the first time in many years, we’ll also be representing DR’s new unscripted format,” Skysgaard said.
