Le Danemark des écrivains

A literary journey to Denmark to meet four authors of contemporary works.

Denmark is said to be the country where people feel the happiest in the world.

The starting premise for a journey through one of Europe’s smallest countries—with a population of 5 million—whose territory extends as far as Greenland.

Jörn Riel knows these remote territories well. Now 80 years old, he joined a scientific expedition to the Arctic at a very young age. He spent sixteen years on the ice, becoming an expert on Inuit culture. Since then, Riel has been telling stories about Greenland and the Inuit people.

Jonas T. Bengtsson burst onto the literary scene before the age of thirty. His hit book Submarino depicts the underbelly of society... and asserts that something is rotten in the Kingdom of Denmark. Denmark was thought to be immune to the scourge of organized crime. That is not the case.

J. C. Gröndahl is the best-known Danish writer on the international stage. He possesses a kind of natural authority. He is a man of the middle generation—at once steeped in the adventure stories of the past and a witness to the upheavals of the present. Gröndahl embodies a certain Danish lifestyle based on consensus. He is "cool.".

Josefine Klougart was born in 1985 on the Mols Peninsula in eastern Jutland; her stories are set in this region. Regarded as a major up-and-coming talent in Danish literature, she has written three novels that are bestsellers in Denmark. Her work is currently being translated by Actes Sud.

An Ivan Butel documentary

Belongs to the "Europe of Writers" collection

Co-produced and broadcast by Arte France

Director : Ivan Butel

DOP : Sébastien Saadoun

Length : 52 min

Editor : Jean-Baptiste Morin

Sound engineer : Alain Vernois

Subtitles : Collection Europe des écrivains