Remember when Charli XCX played Coachella earlier this year and called time on her Brat Summer, flashing up all those names on big screens? Among the artists she gave a shout-out to was Joachim Trier, the Norwegian director behind The Worst Person In The World. How did he feel when ‘Joachim Trier Summer’ was blasted all over social media? ‘That was awesome,’ he admits. ‘I’m a huge fan of hers. I was pleasantly shocked.’

With his new movie Sentimental Value due for release, it’ll definitely be a ‘Joachim Trier Winter’. Scripted with usual writer Eskil Vogt, the story sees once-famous film director Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård) looking to revive his career with an autobiographical tale, one he hopes will bring him back into the orbit of estranged daughters Nora (Worst Person In The World star Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas). 

Despite coming from a family of filmmakers, Trier didn’t set out to create a reflection of his own history. ‘I started the story from the sisters’ point of view, and then slowly, this complicated father came into the picture,’ he explains. ‘Then it snapped into place when he became a filmmaker, because we didn’t want to make him demonised. We wanted there to be a sense of understanding for him.’

One of the most popular films in Cannes earlier this year, where it won the Grand Jury Prize, it also features Elle Fanning as Hollywood star Rachel Kemp, whom Gustav courts to play the lead when Nora, now an accomplished stage actress, refuses. ‘I just admire her,’ says Trier of the 27-year-old Fanning. ‘She’s still quite young, but she has a maturity and a skill which is remarkable.’ Whether it’s due to Fanning’s presence or Charli’s help, the film has just had the best per-screen-average opening for an indie movie in America since the pandemic. For a film about filmmaking, that’s heartening, says Trier. ‘It’s still possible to make movies and be seen in theatres.’ 

Sentimental Value is in cinemas from Friday 26 December.