– Kristofer Hivju and Tom Wlaschiha star in a Norwegian-German co-production which follows a 12-year-old boy on a cross-border journey in search of the father he has never met
l-r: Director Torfinn Iversen and actors Kristofer Hivju, Mikkel Knutsen Bjaadal, Ine Marie Wilmann, Henning Peker and Tom Wlaschiha (© Fredrik Mortensen)
Norwegian filmmaker Torfinn Iversen is currently shooting his sophomore feature film Uncle Egg. The principal photography has recently wrapped its first leg after two weeks at FilmCamp in Northern Norway before moving to Erfurt, Germany.
The film follows 12-year-old Hauk, who secretly leaves Northern Norway for Germany in search of his unknown biological father, Martin Müller. The task proves far more complicated than expected when he discovers there are more than 25,000 men in Germany with exactly the same name. After his eccentric Uncle Egg learns of the plan, he sets off after the boy, and what begins as a quest to find a biological parent gradually becomes a story about belonging, identity and what truly makes a family.
The cast is led by Norwegian star Kristofer Hivju (Game of Thrones, Force Majeure), German actor Tom Wlaschiha (Game of Thrones, Stranger Things) and Ine Marie Wilmann (Sonja: The White Swan, War Sailor), while newcomer Mikkel Knutsen Bjaadal makes his feature-film debut in the lead role as Hauk.
Iversen also penned the screenplay. Uncle Egg continues the director’s exploration of family relationships following Oskar’s America, which premiered in the Berlinale Generation section in 2017. His subsequent short films include the Amanda Award-nominated Bog Hole, The Kicksled Choir, which was shortlisted for the Academy Awards, and The Corkscrew, which won the main prize at BUFF Malmö earlier this year.
According to the director, the new film is inspired by his own childhood experiences of growing up in a non-traditional family. “Uncle Egg is the film I wish I had seen when I was the same age as Hauk. Through humour, adventure and emotion, I want to show that love and belonging do not necessarily come from biological ties or traditional family structures. Family is not about fitting into a predefined mold. It’s about the people who choose to stay,” Iversen commented.
The director of photography is Odd Reinhardt Nicolaysen (What Young Men Do, The Journey to the Christmas Star), who has previously collaborated with the director, while the creative team also includes production designer Tuva Hølmebakk, German art director Silvia Fischer, and Norwegian sound mixer Gjermund Skog.
Uncle Egg is a Norwegian-German co-production staged by Julia Andersen for Tromsø-based Fjordic Film AS, together with Philipp Schall for Erfurt-based Mideu Films along with Alexander Ferwer for Munich-based Tellux Film. The project has received backing from the Norwegian Film Institute, Arctic Film Norway Invest, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) and Eurimages. The film is slated for completion in 2027.
