'The Sunlit Night': Release date, plot, cast, trailer and all you need to know about rom-com set in Norway
Described as an "aggressively cute comedy" by critics, this rom-com is shot in Norway, the land of the midnight sun. While the setting has usually been used for some prime horror fare, this film aims to have you screaming with laughter instead. The film has comedy-drama veterans like Jenny Slate, Zach Galifianakis and Gillian Anderson and is adapted from Rebecca Dinerstein's novel by the same name.
Release date
The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2019. It is scheduled to be released on July 17, 2020, by Quiver Distribution.
Plot
The film follows an aspiring painter Frances from New York City to the farthest reaches of Arctic Norway for an assignment she hopes will invigorate her work and expand her horizons. In a remote village, among the locals, she meets a fellow New Yorker, Yasha, who has come in search of a proper Viking funeral only to find that the Norse Chief is a re-enactor from Cincinnati. The eclectic crew ranges from "home" to "lost," within the extreme and dazzling landscape of the Far North. Under a sun that never quite sets, and the high standards of an unforgiving mentor, Frances must navigate between ambition, desire, obligation and risk in order to find a way forward.
Cast
Jenny Slate as Frances
Jenny Slate plays the main protagonist Frances, the burnt-out, heart-broken painter, wanting to find inspiration in the Arctic reaches, as far away from her home in New York as she can possibly get. Slate is an actress, comedian and author who got involved in improv and comedy while studying at Columbia University. Her first big break on TV was when she was hired to be a cast member on the 35th season of 'Saturday Night Live'. She gained further recognition for her recurring roles as Mona-Lisa Saperstein on 'Parks and Recreation' and as Sarah Guggenheim on 'House of Lies'. She has won the Critics' Choice Movie Award for the coming-of-age comedy-drama film 'Obvious Child' and has been nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and Gotham Independent Film Award. She has also worked as a voice artist on animated films like 'Zootopia', 'The Secret Life of Pets', 'The Lego Batman Movie'. She most recently starred in 'Gifted' opposite Chris Evans, who she also briefly dated.
Zach Galifianakis as Norse Chief
Zach Galifianakis appears as the Norse Chief, who seems to know everything about Viking funerals. Galifianakis is a well-known comedic actor who shot to fame after the release of 'The Hangover' films. He is the host of the Emmy Award-winning talk show 'Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis'. He starred in the FX series 'Baskets' for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2017. His other significant roles include 'Due Date', 'A Wrinkle in Time' and 'Birdman'.
Gillian Anderson as Yasha's mother
Playing the estranged mother of the male lead, Yasha is Gillian Anderson. Anderson is best known as FBI Special Agent Dana Scully in the long-running series 'The X-Files', for which she has won a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy. Most recently, she appeared as relentlessly frank sex therapist and mother, Jean Milburn, in the popular Netflix series 'Sex Education'.
Alex Sharp as Yasha
Yasha, the romantic interest for Frances, is a fellow-New Yorker who has come to Norway to arrange an authentic Viking funeral. Yasha is played by Alex Sharp. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his debut Broadway performance, right after graduating from Julliard. His role was that of the autistic teenager, Christopher Boone, in the play 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'. He has also starred in John Cameron Mitchell's, 'How to Talk to Girls at Parties' and 'To The Bone'. He is set to star in Aaron Sorkin's feature film, 'The Trial of the Chicago 7', in 2020, alongside Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Creator:
The film has been directed by David Wnendt, a German filmmaker known for 'Look Who's Back' 'Combat Girls' and 'Wetlands'.
Rebecca Dinerstein wrote the screenplay based on her book 'The Sunlit Night'.
Trailer:
The trailer sees a young New York painter escape her messy life in New York to work for an eccentric artist on the top of the world -- Arctic Norway. There, while she becomes an apprentice, learning to see art with new eyes, she befriends a young man. The grief-stricken man has come to Norway to give his beloved father a Viking funeral. But it is a less than perfect event as the Viking chief, played by Zach Galifianakis, messes it up and his estranged mother, played by Gillian Anderson, shows up.
If you like this, you'll love:
'The Sun is also a Star', 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel', 'Eat Pray Love, 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty', 'Amélie' and 'Before Sunset'.
