ROSKILDE

Join the Roskilde Festival, one of the biggest and most renowned music festivals in Europe.

For years the festival has aroused excitement around the world and with this film the audience will get an intoxicating feeling of being right in the middle the festival's here and now. Get close to musicians, audience and the hundreds of people who work behind the scenes on Europe's biggest festival.

With exclusive access, in front of and behind the scenes, ROSKILDE creates a musical image of the atmosphere through the eyes of the artist, the volunteer and the guest when a simple ploughed field is transformed into a musical centre of energy in which the ecstasy culminates and boundaries are crossed.

ROSKILDE tells an elaborate and colourful story of the festival; the story of a parallel universe in which 130,000 people seek out the same ecstasy; the story of the extraordinary atmosphere which saturates the festival and makes it all possible. It is a portrait of a generation and a festival that have grown up together and where the core is made of human diversity and room for the individual.  

Experience live concerts with; Franz Ferdinand, Placebo, The Streets, Rufus Wainwright, Editors, Jenny Wilson, Mew, Sonic Youth and many others…

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Director's note
Through the bird's point of view we look down on a surreal picture of colours poured down on the flat landscape. We fly at a lower altitude while the colours become tents, the lines become paths and escape routes. There are 125,000 of the most modern people in history present; they have got all kinds of colours, speak all kinds of languages, and embrace all kinds of desires and tempers. Whether the year is 2005, 2018 or 2050 - it does not matter. We try to remember where we come from and forget where we are going. What's the core of anything at this moment? What can make us explore this better than music?
For three days we are allowed to live in a timeless Stone Age to the sound of the chosen soundtrack, to scream, fuck the neighbour, scream "I love you" at heaps of passers-by or at the specially chosen stranger. Or to be lonely in this strangely orchestrated community where the film takes advantage of the rare option it is to show truth behind 30 kilometres of fence where our savagery and need for freedom is scratched and poked at. 

Ulrik Wivel, March 2008.

About the Director
Ulrik Wivel is educated as ballet dancer at the Royal Theatre of Denmark and has, among other things, danced at the Royal Ballet of Denmark, The National Ballet of Canada, Pacific North West Ballet and New York City Ballet.  He became solo dancer in 1993, ended his dancing career in 1998 and has since then worked in the film industry. In 1998 he worked as assistant on Paul Auster's debut film Lulu on the Bridge. Ulrik Wivel made his debut as director with the documentary film Danser which received 'special mention' at the Dance on Camera, New York 2000. In the Super 16-group he directed short films and simultaneously Staceyann Chin was released in 2001, and in 2003 Urge was released which was nominated as best short film at the New York Film Festival.
This is Me Walking was released in 2004 and was awarded best short fiction film by The Danish Film Academy's Robert award. In 2005 both Ulrik Wivel's The Bournonville School and Jeg elsker dig - which won for best short film at Odense Film Festival, had their opening nights. Recently he has made a profile of Sanne Salomonsen in connection with her fiftieth birthday in 2006.
Besides ROSKILDE Ulrik Wivel will release the film Comeback in 2008 which is his first feature film.

Behind the Film
During the last eight years Ulrik Wivel has guided a team of 25 co-directors and photographers whose goal has been to capture the many small dramatic scenes and great musical moments which unfold at the Roskilde Festival.
A total of 200 hours of film has been edited down into those 99 minutes the film lasts. The work has demanded a stringent selection governed by careful dramaturgical considerations. After four months of editing, the result is one intense Roskilde Festival.
The work put into ROSKILDE goes back 14 years and the film - like the festival - spreads over several generations. Originally it was Anne Wivel, requested by the festival in 1994, who suggested that a major film project about the festival was launched in connection with the festival's 25th anniversary. Anne Wivel had at that point proved successful in telling the great documentary stories in Danish film. Anne Wivel started working with a team that, among others, included; Thomas Gislason, Dan Lausten, Annette K. Olesen and Mikala Krogh. The technical circumstances prevented that a major documentary at that point was made within realistic financial boundaries. In 1999 Anne Wivel's son Ulrik Wivel took over the project and has together with his big film crew co-ordinated eight years of intense festival footage.
The many co-directors include, among others,: Mikala Krogh (Min morfars morder), Eva Mulvad (Vores Lykkes Fjender), Martin de Thura (Young Man Falling), Sami Saif (Family), Michael Noer (Jorden under mine fødder), Christian Bonke (Real Estate), Helene Moltke Leth (Same Old Song), Mads Mathiesen (Dennis), Tea Lindeburgh Leth (Et andet sted), Ditte Haarløv Johnsen (Sisters), Caroline Cogez (Emmalou), Tine Katinka Jensen (Angie), Morten Vammen (Øjet i natten) og Tue Walin Storm (Unbound).