After its selection for the Berlinale competition, Danish director Niels Arden Oplev's feature debut, Portland, has entered the international festival circuit, now unspooling in the Panorama at Prague. Next on the travel schedule are Cambridge, Melbourne, Haugesund and Budapest.

Generally, Scandinavian audiences let down their own domestic films - Portland was no exception. It took less than a disastrous 2,500 admissions, in spite of favourable reviews - so the demand from foreign events, as well as sales to Finland, Norway and Sweden have proved that if not a commercial, it was an artistic success, said Arden Oplev.

With Portland I intended to make a film for an audience from 15-30, which not only had an entertaining plot, but also reflected conflicts in everyday society. I did not intend to follow the traditionally US-inspired way of story-telling, but create a narrative which could be described as a road movie which never leaves town, Arden Oplev concluded.

Educated at the Danish Film School, Arden Oplev's graduation work, Kyndelmisse (Winter's End), starring Prague jury chairman Max von Sydow, won the first fiction prize in Mexico, and was nominated for the Student Academy Awards in 1991. He is currently writing his next feature, a black comedy which is also set in the Danish provinces.

Jørn Rossing Jensen

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