Nils Gaup

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Mikkel Gaup (center) and Nils Gaup (right) at the 1988 Oscars .

Nils Gaup (born April 12, 1955 in Kautokeino , Finnmark ) is a Sami - Norwegian film director .

Life

Nils Gaup originally wanted to be a ski jumper , but then decided to pursue an acting career . From 1974 to 1978 he attended drama school and studied at the renowned Beaivvas Sámi Theater in Kautokeino. He also founded the first theater in North Sami there .

After acting in several Norwegian films as an actor, he wrote the screenplay for Pathfinder in 1985 (original title: Ofelaš or Veiviseren , German television title: Die Rache des Fahrenensuchers ). With this film, Gaup made his international breakthrough in 1987. It was the first feature film made in a Sami language and was celebrated at international festivals . Pathfinder is set about 1000 years ago in the icy landscape of Sápmi , where a young man has to watch his family being brutally murdered by a barbarian tribe. Thanks to his excellent tracking skills , he manages to get revenge on the murderers in a breathtaking game of cat and mouse. The film was nominated for an Oscar abroad in 1988 and received the Amanda , Norway's most important film award.

Then Gaup turned Stranded . The pirate adventure, inspired by Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe , was funded by Disney and is based on a youth novel by the Norwegian writer Oluf Vilhelm Falck-Ytter (1832-1914). In 1993 he made his most successful film to date, Holidays with a Corpse . This pitch-black comedy also received the Amanda Award and was rematched by Hollywood in 1996 under the title Head Above Water with Cameron Diaz and Harvey Keitel .

In 1996 Christopher Lambert chose Gaup as director for his project Tashunga - Merciless Persecution . The film, in which James Caan also stars, flopped with both critics and the box office.

Due to the success of Pathfinder , Hollywood began to prick up its ears and received offers for films such as Not Without My Daughter or Robocop , which he turned down. Nils Gaup was originally scheduled to direct the Kevin Costner film Waterworld . He shot a few scenes but decided to leave the project because of the excessive costs.

In 2007 Gaup made a film about the Kautokeino Rebellion of 1852. This true story is about bloody excesses of the Sami population against church and state . For this film, the leading actress Anni-Kristiina Juuso received the Amanda Award in 2008 .

Filmography (selection)

Awards and nominations (selection)

  • 1988: Amanda - Pathfinder
  • 1988: Oscar nomination for best foreign film - Pathfinder
  • 1994: Amanda Award - Holidays with a Corpse
  • 1999: nomination for the Amanda Award - Misery Harbor
  • 1999: Nomination for the Montreal Film Festival - Misery Harbor
  • 2008: Audience Award at the 50th Nordic Film Days in Lübeck - The Kautokeino Rebellion

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gaup, Nils
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian film director
DATE OF BIRTH April 12, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Kautokeino , Finnmark