Simon Staho

Danish film director Simon Staho (born 1972) has worked with a number of renowned Swedish actors, including Mikael Persbrandt, Noomi Rapace, Pernilla August and Erland Josephson.

Staho’s first feature film Vildspor/Wildside (1998) was shot in Iceland and starred Mads Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. It was selected for the San Sebastian International Film Festival. Variety wrote in its review: “A solidly crafted thriller with links to classic film noir, though the bleakly beautiful Icelandic settings invest this tale of friendship and betrayal with a distinct ambience. Intelligent and suspenseful fare.”

In 2002, Staho directed Nu/Now, a short film about a man whose marriage is destroyed when he has a secret homosexual relationship. The film - shot in black and white - stars Mads Mikkelsen and Mikael Persbrandt as the male lovers.

With a cast of Swedish actors, Staho directed Dag och Natt/Day and Night (2004), also selected for San Sebastian and winner of the Silver Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival.

Variety wrote in its review: “Set entirely within a car with a two-camera set-up, “Day and Night” is one of the most interesting films to have been made in Sweden for a long while. The drama is about the last day in the life of a man at the end of his rope. The film starts with a voice-over, telling the audience that on 11 September 2003, a man named Thomas committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. The rest of the movie depicts the day leading up to this act, with Thomas (Mikael Persbrandt, in a career-defining role) meeting for the last time various people who in some way or another have meant something to him and in his life.”

Bang Bang Orangutang (2005), selected for the main competition at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, is a tragic-comic story about the humiliations of a power-drunk businessman trying to pick up the pieces of his destroyed life, after he has killed his youngest son in a car accident.

In Daisy Diamond (2007), also selected for the main competition at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, Staho returned to a mostly Danish cast. The story deals with Anna (played by Noomi Rapace), who dreams of making it as an actress. When she becomes pregnant, her struggle to give her baby a good start in life culminates in a desperate act that has fatal consequences.

Noomi Rapace won the two top film awards in Denmark (the Bodil and Robert prize) for Best Actress for her role in Daisy Diamond. According to Variety, “Rapace delivers a superbly committed performance in a demanding role, the actress having to expose herself physically and emotionally.”

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Wikipedia