There’s a theory that we should be born with a small amount of alcohol in our blood, and that modest inebriation opens our minds to the world around us, diminishing our problems and increasing our creativity. Heartened by that theory, Martin and three of his friends, all weary high school teachers, embark on an experiment to maintain a constant level of intoxication throughout the workday. If Churchill won WW2 in a heavy daze of alcohol, who knows what a few drops might do for them and their students?

Initial results are positive, and the teachers’ little project turns into a genuine academic study. Both their classes and their results continue to improve, and the group feels alive again! As the units are knocked back, some of the participants see further improvement and others go off the rails. It becomes increasingly clear that while alcohol may have fuelled great results in world history, some bold acts carry consequences.

Direction: Thomas Vinterberg

Script: Thomas Vinterberg, Tobias Lindholm

Production: Sisse Graum Jørgensen

Co-Production: Kasper Dissing

Cinematography: Sturla Brandth Grøvlen

Editing: Anne Østerud, Janus Billeskov Jansen

Production Design: Sabine Hviid

Costume Design: Ellen Lens, Manon Rasmussen

Make-Up: Marly van de Wardt

Sound: Jan Schermer, Hans Møller

Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang, Maria Bonnevie, Helene Reingaard Neumann, Susse Wold, Lars Ranthe

Original Title: DRUK

Original Language: Danish

Film Production Countries: Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden

Statement of the Director/s
“I never drink before breakfast.”

The quote is from Churchill, who helped to defeat the Germans and win World War II, while under the excessive and constant influence of alcohol.

Other great thinkers, artists and writers, such as: Tchaikovsky and Hemmingway have found courage and inspiration that way. After the first mouthfuls of alcohol, we all know the feeling of the conversation growing, the room getting bigger and the problems getting smaller.

With this movie, we want to examine and salute alcohol’s ability to set people free. The film is inspired by the Norwegian psychologist Finn Skårderud’s theories that man is born with a 0.5 blood alcohol level shortfall.

We want to create a tribute to alcohol but it goes without saying we also want to paint a nuanced picture. Embedded in our examination of the essence of alcohol lies an acknowledgement that people die from - and are destroyed by - excessive drinking. An existence with alcohol generates life, but it also kills.

In this story, we meet four good men a little late in their lives. We meet them in a world we know: a boring and mediocre one, which sees them locked in monotony and entrenched in patterns and habits, trapping them in middle ground. At the same time, death is moving closer. They have passed the half-way point of their expected lifetime. The freedom of youth, infatuations and weightlessness have gradually become distant memories. They re-discover all of it and much more by taking part in an experiment entailing a systematic intake of alcohol. Initially, in connection with their jobs as high school teachers.

The movie is imagined to be rooted in the real world – in completely naked, blunt and at times improvised intimacy – like in A WAR by Tobias Lindholm, THE CELEBRATION by the undersigned and HUSBANDS by Cassavetes. The moments play out, letting the camera observe and not dictate.

The movie assumes a humoristic and – in some eyes – scandalous approach to a serious topic. ANOTHER ROUND is intended to be a multi-faceted story that at the same time provokes and entertains, makes us think, cry and laugh within the length of the movie. And hopefully leaves food for thought and debate for an audience who lives in a world which, to an increasing degree, is defined by puritanical rhetoric outwardly, but has a rather high alcohol intake even from a relatively young age.

ANOTHER ROUND is imagined as a tribute to life. As a reclaiming of the irrational wisdom that casts off all anxious common sense and looks down into the very delight of lust for life … although often with deadly consequences.

Thomas Vinterberg

Biography of the Director/s
Thomas Vinterberg is one of Denmark's most important, award-winning, and internationally celebrated directors. His latest effort was the large-scale, international drama KURSK (2019), about the Russian submarine tragedy in the year 2000. Another recent success of his, THE COMMUNE (2016), was selected for the main competition at the Berlin Film Festival and netted Trine Dyrholm a Silver Bear for Best Actress. In 2012, Thomas Vinterberg won world-wide acclaim for this Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated drama THE HUNT (2013), which also won Mads Mikkelsen the Award for Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival. Other notable works include the adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD (2015), which Matthias Schoenaerts and Carey; DEAR WENDY (2005); and IT'S ALL ABOUT LOVE (2003). Vinterberg got his international breakthrough in 1998 with FESTEN – the world's first Dogme 95-film, which received several international awards, including the Cannes Jury Prize. Thomas Vinterberg made his feature debut with THE BIGGEST HEROES (1996), after graduating from the National Film School of Denmark in 1993.

Filmography of the Director/s
2020 - ANOTHER ROUND
2018 - KURSK
2016 - THE COMMUNE
2015 - FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD
2012 – THE HUNT
2010 – SUBMARINO
2007 – WHEN A MAN COMES HOME
2005 – DEAR WENDY
2003 – IT'S ALL ABOUT LOVE
2001 – D-DAY – EDITORS CUT, TV Film
2000 – THE THIRD LIE
2000 – D-DAY, TV film
2000 – D-DAY – NIELS-HENNING, TV film
1998 – THE CELEBRATION (uncredited)
1996 – THE BIGGEST HEROES
1995 – THE BOY WHO WALKED BACKWARDS, short
1993 – LAST ROUND, short
1993 - SLAGET PÅ TASKEN, TV film
1990 – SNOW-BLINDED

Production Company:
Zentropa Productions
Sidsel Hybschmann
Filmbyen 22
Hvidovre, 2650, Denmark
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: +45 3636 9788
Website: https://zentropa.dk/

World Sales:
Trust Nordisk
Nicolai Korsgaard
Filmbyen 30
Hvidovre, 2650, Denmark
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: +45 2974 6206
Website: http://www.trustnordisk.com/

Press:
Premier
Jonathan Rutter
2-4 Bucknall Street
London, WC2H 8LA, United Kingdom
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: +44 207 292 8330
Website: https://www.premiercomms.com/