HCA NEWS HCA2005 support for Young Andersen

The Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Foundation supports a TV feature portraying the young Hans Christian Andersen, directed by Rumle Hammerich.

By Mikkel Stjernberg - H.C. Andersen 2005 - 12 March 2004

With economic support from the Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Foundation, Danish film director Rumle Hammerich is now ready to start production on the Andersen TV feature produced by Nordisk Film (Northern Film) in coorporation with Danmarks Radio (The Danish National Broadcasting Corporation).

At a press conference in Copenhagen on 11 March 2004, Rumle Hammerich presented the production called 'Unge Andersen' ('Young Andersen'). The TV series will feature the vulnerable yet self-conscious young Andersen at a tender age when developing his dark narrative voice, which he later brought him world fame. 

This journey starts at Hans Christian Andersen's grammar school in the town of Slagelse on Zealand where he was admitted at the age of 18 and tutored under strict supervision of the tyrannical head master Simon Meisling, who brutally discouraged Andersen creative imagination by forbidding him to write and subjecting him to harassment.

Demon or rescuer
Nonetheless, Meisling was highly intelligent, and Rumle Hammerich's TV production questions whether Meisling really was the demon he has always been made to be, or whether he actually saved Hans Christian Andersen from insanity.

In other words, 'Young Andersen' deals with the birth of Andersen's authorship and lends through-provoking insight into the young, vulnerable soul of what was later to become Denmark's greatest author.
 
Additionally, it portrays how Meisling's attempt to stifle the young Andersen's artistic soul fails miserably and how Andersen as a result of his showdown with Meisling finally reaches his true audience: the inner child in us all.

Masters of narrative
The screenplay is the result of collaboration between Swedish author Ulf Stark and Rumle Hammerich, who are both experienced filmmakers. They have worked together before on the film 'Herr von Hancken' - a short historical feature series produced by Swedish national broadcasting, Sveriges Television.

With 'Young Andersen' the two writers draw on the poetical licence Andersen nurtured himself. 'Young Andersen' confronts both Hans Christian Andersen and the TV audience with tales of Andersen's life that are new to us all. 

In short, the TV series is a modern and dynamic adaptation of the myth of the young Hans Christian Andersen.


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