Paris- and Berlin-based sales company Salau Morissette has closed multiple international deals for director Eivind Landsvik’s debut feature film Low Expectations, starring Norwegian singer-songwriter Marie Ulven (aka The Girl in Red), following its world premiere at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.
Variety gave the film a glowing review, praising its “compelling power” and calling it “a slow, quiet, life-affirming coming-of-age story that you won’t want to look away from.”
The film, which also stars Anders Danielsen Lee, has been sold at Cannes Market to Benelux Airlines (Cherry Pickers), Austria (Polifilm via Pandora Film Varley), Spain (Adso Films), Czech Republic (Pilot Film), Greece (Rosebud.21), and offers are also being negotiated in Italy, the UK, Switzerland, Poland, Brazil and Taiwan. Discussions are ongoing in the United States as well as the rest of Europe and some parts of Latin America.
The film follows Maya (Ulven), a rising musician whose success becomes increasingly difficult to reconcile with her inner life. Forced to take a break from her career, she returns to her hometown and takes a part-time job at a local high school, working alongside Johannes (Danielsen Lee). Away from the noise and expectations around her, Maya slowly reconnects with herself and the world around her.
Prior to Cannes, Tharrow Morissette had already signed distribution deals with France’s UFO Distribution and Germany’s Pandora Film Varley. The film will be theatrically released in Northern Europe by Nordisk Film Distribution, with a Norwegian release scheduled for September 11th.
“Marie Ulven’s captivating performance, combined with Eyvind Landsvik’s emotional precision and the film’s universal themes of burnout, vulnerability and self-reinvention, immediately convinced buyers of the film’s strong theatrical potential,” said Paul Julien, head of sales at Saloud Morissette. “Early critical response has been very encouraging, and we truly believe that ‘Low Expectations’ has the potential to connect with audiences far beyond traditional arthouse films.”
“Low Expectations” is produced by Lotto Sandbu and Synnove Hørsdal for Maipo Film in co-production with Snowglobe. The film received support from the Norwegian Film Institute, Oslo Filmfond, Danish Film Institute, Nordisk Film & TV Fond and YuriImages.
Low Expectations marks the feature debut of Norwegian filmmaker Eyvind Landsvik. His previous short films include “Tits” (2023), which premiered in the Cannes Official Selection, and “Sofia, the Last Summer” (2021), which won the Norwegian Film Critics Award.
