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Olga - Tomorrow I’ll Dance (Olga - Morgen dans ik weer) Sigma Pictures Productions Netherlands Writer/director Hans Hylkema Producer Matthijs van Heijningen Producer Guurtje Buddenberg 38 • NPP 2008 Synopsis 1953. Eight-year-old Olga de Haas is literally picked off the street by the Russian ballet teacher Sonia Gaskell. Eight years later, she is a member of the corps de ballet of Gaskell’s company. They move to Amsterdam, where she explores the nightlife - a tough combination with a heavy rehearsal schedule. The leads in Swan Lake and Giselle are now exclusively for the 20-year-old Olga, who is acclaimed at an international ballet concourse in Moscow. The press love the beautiful young woman who combines the arts and pop culture; her pictures are in all the glossies. Olga can hide her double life for the time being but, under pressure, she develops anorexia and alcohol addiction. She comes late or not at all to daily rehearsals and, when Gaskell has to leave the company, she is personally affected. Her first serious relationship - with barman Gerry - comes to an end but she makes a miraculous comeback and, despite a bad foot injury, performs in 1969 with Rudolf Nureyev, a dream come true. A year later, she collapses on stage. After her recovery, she does not end her career but declares, “Tomorrow I’ll dance again.” A new relationship and triumph on stage in the role of Juliet follow, mixed with alcohol and pills. When she performs Juliet for the third time and stabs herself with the knife at the end, there is a strong symbolic link with her own life. The night after the premiere, she collapses again. In a nightmare, she is in the municipal park and the characters from the ballets she danced in are on an island. One of them, the evil sorcerer Rothbard from Swan Lake, is a bird with the face of her father. He beckons her and automatically she wades through the water to him… On the island she collapses, exhausted. Olga de Haas lacks the will and the strength to go on. Two years later, in 1978, Julia, Giselle and Odette, the Swan Queen, die in the exhausted and wrecked body of Olga de Haas, aged 34. Dance gave her wings; life broke them. Director’s statement I am interested in biographies of people set against the background of a specific era. The main character in this biopic is Holland’s first real ballet star, Olga de Haas, who lived the turbulent life of a pop star in the 1960s and 1970s, when youth culture first emerged. The world of classical and modern dance is fascinating because dancers defy gravity, and everybody wants to fly. But there is a reverse side to this: dancers have to take care of their bodies and that demands a disciplined way of life. Olga is torn between that ascetic soberness and the temptations of the exciting nightlife that a girl her age wants to enjoy. This is the drama of the main character, who also has to deal with struggles within the National Ballet. The look of the film is a combination between a classical editing style for the dance sequences and a more documentary approach for the daily-life scenes in the swinging 1960s. Writer/director Hans Hylkema Born in 1946, Hans Hylkema worked as a cameraman after attending the Dutch Film Academy, then went on to become a director of features, shorts and documentaries. His feature films include the Dutch/German/Belgian/Indonesian coproduction Oeroeg (1993), a period film shot entirely in Indonesia; Juliet’s Secret (1987), about a Turkish schoolgirl living in the Netherlands and playing the female lead in Romeo and Juliet; The Kingmaker Connection (1983), a thriller about a hushed-up Dutch political scandal from the 1950s; and the feature-length TV movie Soekarno Blues, about a fictional meeting between Queen Juliana and Indonesia’s first president. Hylkema has also directed a number of acclaimed music documentaries, including Last Date – Eric Dolphy (1991), which was released in the US.
Director Hans Hylkema Producer Matthijs van Heijningen, Guurtje Buddenberg Writer Hans Hylkema, Barbara Jurgens Based on an original story Language Dutch, English Genre Biopic Format 35mm Running time 100 mins approx Biopic based on the life of prima ballerina Olga de Haas, a talented young woman who abused her body with alcohol and anorexia until self-destruction was the only way out. Target audience Broad educated arthouse audience, 16-61 Budget minimum of € 2,650,000 Cast tbc Production company Sigma Pictures Sigma have been independent feature-film producers since 1974. The company has produced 36 feature films, mainstream as well as arthouse, mostly based on Dutch literature and original screenplays. In the 1970s and 1980s, Sigma produced some of the biggest successes in Dutch cinema, including the first two pictures by Marleen Gorris, and were coproducers of Sally Potter’s Orlando. In 1999, Matthijs van Heijningen was awarded The Golden Calf for his contribution to Dutch cinema. The company’s film 1000 rosen (1994), directed by Theu Boermans, won the Golden Calf for Best Film. Sigma are currently developing a historical action drama with Boermans; this project with Hans Hylkema; and a period crime drama with André van Duren. Current status The screenplay is available and casting for the main parts, Olga and Gaskell, is complete. We have applied for support from the Dutch Film Fund, and Dutch broadcaster NPS is participating in the film for the TV rights and the CoBo Fund. Dutch film distributor Bridge Entertainment will be distributing in Benelux against a minimum guarantee and P&A costs. Aims at the NPP We hope to find a co-producing country - Belgium, Eastern Europe or the Baltic states - that still has a strong classical ballet tradition and a ballet company that will be able to perform classics such as Swan Lake, Giselle and Romeo and Juliet. Hopefully, this will also be a country where there is still an authentic ‘classical’ theatre, like the Amsterdam Municipal Theatre of the 1960s and 1970s. Given the dramatic content of the role, we expect to have to use a Dutch actress for the part of Olga, and will thus need a standin for the ballet sequences (the same for the role of Nureyev, of course). Apart from this, co-producing with a European country could mean access to more financing through national funds and via Eurimages. The present budget of €2,650,000 is very tight for a ‘costume’ picture, but is the maximum we can raise in the Netherlands. It would be ideal if we could increase the budget with contributions from other national funds, Eurimages or tax credits. Contact Matthijs van Heijningen Guurtje Buddenberg Sigma Pictures Productions BV Singel 132 1015 AG Amsterdam Netherlands Tel: (00) 31 20 535 3320 Fax: (00) 31 20 535 3329 info@sigmapictures.com www.sigmapictures.com NPP 2008 • 39
Page 1: Netherlands Production Platform NPP
Page 4 and 5: The Netherlands Production Platform
Page 6 and 7: The Bear (Ursul) Libra Film Romania
Page 8 and 9: Corps diplomatique Dschoint Ventsch
Page 10 and 11: The Fields Savage Film Belgium Writ
Page 12 and 13: Invasion Twenty Twenty Vision Filmp
Page 14 and 15: Istanbul Új Budapest Filmstúdió
Page 16 and 17: Lonely Woman Artémis Productions B
Page 18 and 19: Our Grand Despair (Bizim büyük ca
Page 20 and 21: Playoff Topia Communications Israel
Page 22 and 23: The Runway Fastnet Films Ireland Wr
Page 24 and 25: Seeing Chris Newgrange Pictures Ire
Page 26 and 27: Shanghai- Belleville Clandestine &
Page 28 and 29: The Snow Queen (Lumekuninganna) F-S
Page 30 and 31: Svinalängorna (The Pigsties) Hepp
Page 32 and 33: Um-Hussein (Mother Hussein) Human F
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Page 36 and 37: A Kronstadt Tale Van Lieshout Filmp
Page 38 and 39: Lourdes Holland Harbour Productions
Page 42 and 43: Shocking Blue Waterland Film Nether
Page 44 and 45: Sonny Boy Shooting Star Filmcompany
Page 46: Index English titles, original titl

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