The Keeper of Lost Causes - the Film

COMING TO A CINEMA NEAR YOU ....

In UK cinemas 29 August 2014

Directed by Mikkel Nørgaard

Written by Jussi Adler-Olsen (novel), Nikolaj Arcel (screenwriter)

Starring: Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Fares Fares, Sonja Richter

Based on the award-winning novel Mercy, the first of the bestselling Department Q crime fiction series by Jussi Adler-Olsen, THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES is a powerful and gripping thriller starring Nikolaj Lie Kaas (The Killing), Sonja Richter (The Homesman) and Fares Fares (Zero Dark Thirty, Safe House) from the screenwriter of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Carl Mørck (Kaas) is a troubled detective who takes the fall when his partner is wounded during a routine operation. Reassigned to the newly created Department Q, a basement-bound job filing cold cases, he is allocated a new assistant, Assad (Fares), a smart young Muslim cop. Always one to go against orders, Mørck throws them headlong into the mystery of a politician’s disappearance (Richter) five years earlier. Believing the case to be unsolved, they embark on a dangerous journey that will uncover a shocking truth, leading to a thrilling and unforgettable climax.

Director's Statement

" This is a story about the dark side of life, what happens if you cannot let go of the past, when it devours you from within. This is, on the surface, a story about a woman who disappeared five years ago and the man who has to find out what happened. But underneath it all, this is a story of how humans deal with the horrific things that happen throughout life, being able to move forward from that or not. This is a thriller, and it will explore what it means to be human in an old-fashioned way. It explores our fear, guilt, shame, and how to overcome them.

" In Denmark, the dogma wave has had a big influence on our way of telling stories, going for a realistic expression in an almost documentary style. With this film I want to gain control of the images as the most powerful tool to create a universe. I want to guide the audience through the darkness of the story and back into the light with the camera, the sound and the music. What Hitchcock would call “pure cinema”. But I want to do this in a European way. Going for a clear cinematic Point Of View in the story-telling.

This is a voyage into mankind. The film will be Larger than Life, showing the most horrifying story as a mirror of the life we all live."

- Mikkel Nørgaard

Mikkel Nørgaard graduated from The National Film School of Denmark in 2001. Nørgaard has directed a number of major television series such as the award-winning political drama Borgen (2010-2011) and the hugely popular sitcom Clown (2005-2009). His feature film debut Klown (2010), based on the above-mentioned sitcom, became a huge box office hit in Denmark. With more than 850.000 admissions in the cinema it has become the most successful local language film in more than a decade and the highest grossing local film of all time. The Keeper of Lost Causes is Mikkel Nørgaard’s second feature film.

This is the first of planned series of four films - the second has already been made. To coincide with the release of the film, Penguin will be re-issuing the original novel in the UK with the new title The Keeper of Lost Causes.