The feature, helmed by Michiel ten Horn and penned by Martijn Hillenius, will kick off pre-sales at this year’s European Film Market.
In the valley of Val Sinestra in the Swiss Alps, Dutch sales agent DFW International and producer Keplerfilm have started shooting a brand-new Christmas adventure titled Hotel Sinestra, directed by Michiel ten Horn and penned by Martijn Hillenius. Ten Horn is best known for his work on Ares, the first-ever Netflix Original series from the Netherlands, and his tragicomic debut The Deflowering of Eva van End, which screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013, amongst others.
The story begins during a winter holiday at the titular Swiss hotel. Here, 11-year-old Ava (played by Bobbie Mulder) finds herself wishing that her overprotective parents (Jeroen Spitzenberger and Elise Schaap) would just go away. The following morning at breakfast, all the adults have suddenly vanished. And so the party begins: the children can do anything they want! Led by a remarkably childish boy called Jonas, they get a little carried away, and a dangerous situation arises causing the entire hotel to be shrouded in darkness. Ava and her new friends go on a quest to find their parents in the midst of a huge snowstorm so that they can celebrate Christmas together.
Charlotte Henskens, director of International Sales at DFW International, told Cineuropa: “We’re very excited to be teaming up with Keplerfilm on Hotel Sinestra. These guys really know how to make fun and engaging family movies. With snowy Switzerland as a beautiful backdrop, we look forward to adding Hotel Sinestra to our Christmas line-up.”
Hotel Sinestra is being produced by Derk-Jan Warrink and Koji Nelissen for Keplerfilm, and co-produced by Dutch pubcaster VPRO and Zodiac Pictures in Switzerland. It received support from the Netherlands Film Fund, the Netherlands Film Production Incentive, Eurimages, Switzerland’s Federal Office of Culture, Zürcher Filmstiftung, SRF and CoBO. The project was developed within the framework of Cinema Junior, a programme promoting high-quality youth film.
DFW International, the global sales division of Dutch FilmWorks, will kick off pre-sales for the title at this year’s European Film Market (10-17 February), whilst Dutch FilmWorks is set to release the film in Dutch cinemas in December 2022.
By Davide Abbatescianni
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