War film secures largest Danish grant payment

True-life war film Shadows In My Eyes has secured a grant of €2.1m from the Danish Film Institute (DFI) – the largest ever issued by the agency – but will shoot largely in Prague.

The movie will chart a Second World War bombing mission launched by the Royal Air Force over German-occupied Denmark in 1945 that targeted the Gestapo’s headquarters in Copenhagen but accidentally destroyed a school.

Ole Bornedal will direct the movie that has a total budget of €7.7m, according to a Screen report.

“Shadows In My Eyes is about children,” said Bornedal. “It’s seen through the eyes of children, from that perspective, and with the sense of wonder that children must observe a grotesque world around them.

"It’s the story of innocence versus machines. Of the child who falls victim to the horrors of coincidence.”

Denmark recently launched its new Danish Film Agreement that is currently in place through to 2023 and will support a range of productions including up to four films a year with budgets in the €6m-€8m bracket.

Prague is a European production hub and regularly hosts Second World War stories. Recent shoots have included Taika Waititi’s war satire Jojo Rabbit, which doubled the city for Berlin, and James Kent’s feature The Aftermath, which used Prague as a stand-in for Hamburg.

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