Wilderness

On the heels of “A New Kind of Wilderness,” which won the Sundance Documentary Grand Jury Prize in 2024 and sold to multiple territories such as Germany and France (ZDF/Arte) the US (POV/PBS and the UK (Met Films), DR Sales has partnered again with Norwegian filmmaker Silje Evensmo Jacobsen on her new documentary “The Mystery Package,” Variety has learnt exclusively.  

The Danish documentary is being launched this week at the Cannes content market Mipcom.

“Silje Evensmo Jacobsen is a rare gem in the world of documentaries,” said DR Sales director Pernille Munk Skydsgaard. “With her ability to bridge true cinéma vérité to an artform resembling fiction, we see her as a unique director that captivates life in the exact level of her characters.

With ‘The Mystery Package”, she manages to invent a brand new genre: the Christmas adventure documentary family film.” “We claim this film to be an instant Christmas Classic that will be shown across all platforms for many many Christmases to come,” Skydsgaard commented.

“The Mystery Package” is “a story about childhood curiosity, Christmas traditions and the greatest mystery of all” life itself, with all its unexpected twists and turns,” according to DR Sales. A stranger-than-fiction-story, the core is a mysterious package that the Sandnes family from Valdal in Norway has been receiving every Christmas for the past two decades, with gifts for everyone. “Merry Christmas from all of us in Arendal,” says the handwritten message from the unknown sender. 

The children in the family Edle (9) and Brage (6) decide to uncover the secret before Christmas Eve, together with their father Magnus, one of the original recipients of the package, and their mother – no less than Silje herself, the film’s director.

“What begins as a playful search soon takes a deeper turn”, says the synopsis as the young detectives discover that very first package arrived the year their father’s elder brother Hans Petter committed suicide.”Through the children’s eyes, the investigation becomes both a whimsical detective story and a tender exploration of family memory, grief and the bond that shapes us,” says the statement.

Speaking to Variety, Jacobsen said she had been playing with the idea to film this unique story of the mysterious Christmas package for a couple of years, but had been reluctant to turn the camera on her own family. Until two years ago, when her daughter said: “I’m gonna be a detective and find out who the Christmas package is from.” “Then it was very different”, said Jacobsen who was immediately drawn to the idea of following her kids in this “funny and strange” investigation and make a true Christmas film for children and their family.

“I myself didn’t know anything,” insisted the filmmaker, who agreed to step in front of the camera with her young children, and be truly part of the investigation, letting the cinéma-vérité gradually take shape. “We walked into many dead ends and of course, I didn’t know those would be dead ends, which was crucial.”

However, not to intrude too much on her family life and dynamic, she set a precise time frame to her filming. “I decided to film almost everything every day for three weeks prior to Christmas last year. By limiting myself in time, I was able to let the narrative happen in real time but also continue to be a mum, without the constant urge to film every second of the day,” she explained.

Currently in the editing room, the pic was produced by Jacobsen and Mari Bakke Riise (“A New Kind of Wilderness”) for A5 Film, in co-production with Sweden’s Ballad Film.

“I had seen their amazing film “The Gullspång Miracle” [a Tribeca winner best editing in 2023]; I felt they were great storytellers and that they would be perfect for this project,” added Jacobsen. 

The documentary is scheduled to roll out early 2026.

At Mipcom, DR Sales’ doc slate also includes the festival hits “The Lives of My Father,” Best Doc Series at Canneseries 2025, “The Black Swan”, Best Doc Series at Denmark’s national Robert Awards 2025 and “Mr Nobody Against Putin,” a Sundance World Documentary Special Jury winner this year.

On the company’s drama slate is the Norwegian hospital drama “Still Breathing,” produced by leading outfit Rubicon (HBO’s “Beforeigners”) for NRK, and the Swedish legal thriller “Burden of Justice,” produced by Strive Studios (“Paradise City,” Snabba Cash”) for SVT. Both series will be delivered in 2026.

“I am looking forward to some intense days at Mipcom directly after MIA, meeting broadcasters and producers, presenting our new lineup of new drama series and documentaries. And for the first time in many years, we are also representing DRs new unscripted formats,” said Skydsgaard.