swedish film FIRED BY PASSION

Current Swedish cinema is localbut also international, moving freely between different worlds and shunning neither large nor small. It presents both totally ordinary characters and some extremely odd ones, and ranges in scope from epic megamovies to private cell phone films on microbudgets. The new directors, who have just embarked on their careers, are as interested as their established predecessors in describing relationshipsbut from their own special perspectives rooted in contemporary Sweden. Their films feature both the undead and the very much alive. Close collaboration between creative directors, producers and actors has yielded an array of multifaceted films rich in depth and color. Swedish filmFired by Passion describes how these moviemakers are trying out fresh approaches and exploring genres, extending boundaries or following traditions. Welcome to the new Swedish film scene!

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swedish film
fired by passion

by Fredrik Sahlin

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 2008 Fredrik Sahlin and the Swedish Institute (SI) The author alone is responsible for the views expressed in this book. Translation Stephen Croall Editor Eva Sigsj Graphic design Lobby Design, Stockholm Cover photo: Josef Fares and Ingmar Bergman by

Emelie Asplund and Magnus Skoglf

Paper: Cover, Ensogloss 270 g Inside, Magno Satin 150 g Printed in Sweden by LJ Boktryck AB, Helsingborg, 2008

ISBN 978-91-520-0970-3

The Swedish Institute | Sharing Sweden with the world The Swedish Institute (SI) is a public agency that promotes interest in Sweden abroad. SI seeks to establish cooperation and lasting relations with other countries through strategic communication and cultural, educational and scientific exchanges. Sweden.se, the countrys official gateway, is a rich source of information that provides a direct insight into contemporary Sweden in many different languages. Sweden Bookshop has a wide range of books about Sweden and Swedish fiction in over 40 languages. The bookshop can be found at Slottsbacken 10 in central Stockholm and at www.swedenbookshop.com. The Swedish Institute Box 7434 SE-10391 Stockholm Sweden +46-8-4537800 si@si.se www.si.se and www.sweden.se

swedish film
fired by passion

by Fredrik Sahlin

contents
INTRODUCTION SWEDEN ON SCREEN THE STORYTELLERS
Roy Andersson Lukas Moodysson Ruben stlund Agnieszka Lukasiak Jens Jonsson Maria Blom Josef Fares 4 6 10 11 12 12 13 14 14 15 16
16 17

THE PRODUCERS
Anna Anthony Helen Ahlsson

The actors
Gustaf Skarsgrd Sofia Ledarp Sofia Helin Magnus Krepper

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18 18 20 20

GENRES Documentaries Very Moving Pictures Comedy Crime movies Horror and special effects The Swedish knight Television IN CONCLUSION

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21 24 26 27 29 31

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Fredrik Sahlin has worked as a journalist and critic since 1991. He has been the resident film critic on Sveriges Televisions (SVTs) cultural news program, Kulturnyheterna, since 2001, and also writes about cinema on a freelance basis. As the host of SVTs Nrbild (Closeup), he has interviewed some of Swedens foremost stage and screen performers. He co-authored the book Fucking Film and also served on the Nordic Council Film Prize jury in 20052007.

The latest and brightest star of Swedish cinema is director Lukas Moodysson. Films such as Show Me Love1 (Fucking ml) and Lilya 4-ever (Lilja 4-ever) spread his name far beyond Swedens borders, and for his latest project, Mammoth (Mammut), the director himself has traveled across the world. Shot in Thailand, the U.S. and the Philippines, Mammoth is a huge production by Swedish standards, with a cast that includes international stars Gael Garca Bernal and Michelle Williams. At the other end of the scale we find An Extraordinary Study in Human Degradation (En enastende studie i mnsklig frnedring), a microbudget film shot on a cell phone. In other words, contemporary Swedish cinema covers a wide spectrum. With a few exceptions we focus on those who have recently embarked on their film careers, or who have traveled only a short way down the road.

First, however, a few words about Ingmar Bergman2, easily the biggest name in Swedish film history. It is virtually impossible to write about Swedish cinema without saying at least something about the legendary Bergman. He is up there among screen giants such as Fellini, Fassbinder and Tarkovsky, and following his death in 2007, glowing epitaphs poured in from all corners of the world. Soon, however, people began to discuss his artistic legacy. Does such a legacy really exist? Many say it does. Bergman was productive for so many years and his output for both stage and screen was so huge that anything else is unthinkable. If you look closely, you can find traces of Bergman in the work of most directors dealing with our inner landscape. At the same time, however, the Swedish cinema scene has always been ambivalent towards Bergman both the man and the myth. Among the new generation of filmmakers, few would admit to any direct inspiration from that particular quarter, and

a decade or so ago someone even coined the phrase Bergman lies like a wet blanket over Swedish cinema. The old rebel, who always went his own way, was now considered an inhibiting force. Also, in the days when radical opinion reigned, many people on the political left felt he was too bourgeois to be considered a great artist, while the bourgeoisie (from which he came) saw him as a black sheep. Now that he has quit the directors chair for good, however, and the retrospectives and biographies are pouring in, most people agree that he was a giant of his era, a unique artist. Ingmar Bergman was like no other: a creative mass of neuroses and demons. Which may of course be true of many people, but Bergman succeeded in describing his inner self, first on paper and then on stage and screen, and did so with such power and precision that his inner life became universally accessible and affected people profoundly all over the world.

1 Editors note: English title in italics: International English title. Non-italicized. English title: A straight translation of the original Swedish title for the purposes of this publication. 2 For web addresses, see the last page.

sweden on screen
Not so long ago, many agreed that the filmmaker who had best managed to capture Sweden and the Swedish character wasfrom the U.K. Colin Nutley, to be precise. In one film after another in the 1980s and 1990s, this British immigrant director burrowed deep into such Swedish phenomena as the midsummer feast, compulsory military service, the dance band scene and surly, reactionary farming folks.

Rising stars Evin Ahmad and Youssef Skhayri, as Yasmine and Halim, the Sultan of Thought, in One Eye Red , directed by Daniel Wallentin.

Today, many would argue that in fact these were not specifically Swedish phenomenaexcept, perhaps, the midsummer celebrationsand that it was not so much a case of in-depth study as of Nutley in effect exploiting our own stereotyped images of Swedes as a folksy, homogenous group. In short, he took our own expectations of what social comments should tell us about contemporary life, and filmed them for us. The title of social commentator has always been much sought after in Sweden. Only a few years ago, Colin Nutley topped the list (he is still working, and drawing audiences, even if he is no longer viewed as Mr. Sweden), but nowadays the label is more often attached to filmmakers who report from Swedens segregated city suburbs. Like most Western countries, Sweden has integra-

tion problems, which the film industry has largely chosen to approach through humor. For instance, in One Eye Red (Ett ga Rtt) from 2007, a teenage boy who calls himself the Sultan of Thought suffers at the sight of his father trying to become assimilated by means of the hatefulin the boys eyesgovernment integration plan. The father tries to absorb typically Swedish habits such as eating Kalles Kaviar (a pink caviar sandwich spread) and listening to ABBA, while at the same time discarding his own customs and traditions, causing his son to rebel. In Ciao Bella, which targets young audiences, a Swedish-Persian youth pretends to be Italian to have a chance at a date with a Swedish girl. In Elixir, a group of young immigrants discover a potion that quickly and effectively turns them into mildmannered Sweedies.
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Michelle Meadows (top) as Eva, and Michael Segerstrm (bottom) as Bernhard, in Darling, directed by Johan Kling.

 he Swedish Film Institute, whose board is government-appointed, distributes T funding in various forms to the Swedish film industry. The bulk of production subsidies go to movies that the Institutes consultants decide are worth investing in. There are two such consultants for feature films and they serve for three-year periods.

The two films share the same approach in that they directly pinpoint the highly topical and very real identity problems associated with arriving in a new and totally strange country as an immigrant. The same message can also be conveyed with music, as in Kidz in da Hood (Frortsungar)an updated version of an old Swedish musical entitled Guttersnipes (Rnnstensungar). The project originally sounded hopeless, since musicals were widely considered a dead horse in Sweden. But after the opening, the prophets of doom had to eat their words. Kidz in da Hood sold well and won several prizes at the Golden Beetle Gala (Guldbaggegalan), Swedens annual film awards ceremony. And more musicals are on the way. Mani Masserat Agah, who made his directing debut with Ciao Bella, and who is well worth keeping an eye on, is planning what he describes as a cross between Dirty Dancing and Brokeback Mountain. Stureplan in Stockholma small central square that has come to symbolize the capitals bar and nightclub scene for high flyershas suddenly become a popular setting for Swedish feature films. Fast Cash (Snabba cash), a crime novel about three young men involved in the drug trade in the shadows of Stureplan, was a surprise bestseller and is being adapted for the screen in 2008, while one of the most critically acclaimed Swedish films of 2007, Darling, describes the culture clash between an unemployed middle-aged man and a young woman from the Stureplan scene. No, its not a love story. In gender-minded Swedish cinema, the clich pairing of young woman and older man is no longer on the cards. Rather, it is a beautifully filmed, realistic account of the difficultyperhaps even the impossibilityof connecting across both class and age lines. The film attracted attention not only because of its cinematic qualities, but also because it had previously been refused a production subsidy by the Swedish Film Institute3. Otherwise, the Swedish capital has figured little on the silver screen, at least in recent years. Up until the mid-1990s, though, Swedish films were usually set in Stockholm, while the rest of the country played a subordinate role. But that decade also saw the beginnings of a campaign to establish

Wolf, a film on a controversial issue, directed by Daniel Alfredson.

regional filmmaking. Most successful in this respect was the regional resource and production center in western Sweden, Film i Vst (Film West). Here, in what an optimistic producer dubbed Trollywood (after Trollhttan, the town in which Film i Vst is based), Denmarks Lars von Trier has directed big names such as Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall and Bjrk (in Dogville, Manderlay, and Dancer in the Dark). But most importantly, it has produced a growing number of Swedish films that dare to suggest Sweden is more than just Stockholm. The cameras are still rolling in the west, but over the years production centers in other regions, particularly Filmpool Nord way up in northern Sweden, have become experts at tempting film workers away from Stockholm to less densely populated areas. In 20072008, a number of films opened that had been produced in the north, either wholly or in part. They included major projects such as Sunstorm (Solstorm), Let the Right One In (Lt den rtte komma in) and

Wolf (Varg)the latter a drama focusing on the wolfs right to live, a controversial issue that is fiercely debated in some parts of Sweden. Also, the capital has come into its own once again with a number of successful productions, such as the above-mentioned Darling and One Eye Red, a comedy entitled Wonderful and Loved by All (Underbar och lskad av alla), and a dog cartoon, Rocky. No, hes not a Swedish Lassie but a listless, arrogant, hip hop-loving and highly entertaining mongrel thats been shambling around the pages of comic albums and strips for the past decade or so and is now making his debut as an animated 3D character both in the cinema and in short TV features. Originally a small-scale social commentary project, Rocky has now grown into a minor empire. Many can identify with creator Martin Kellermans wry portrayal of big-city life and cool bar scenes, and those who dont would probably like to.
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the storytellers
As may now be apparent, Swedish cinema sometimes moves out into the street. On occasion, it even enters the realm of action and science fiction (more about that later), and in the 1960s and 1970s it rolled about in the bedrooma period that enjoys a reputation greater than its actual impact.

A Swedish Love Story, a classic by Roy Andersson, featuring Ann-Sofie Kylin as Annika and Rolf Sohlman as Pr.

Easily the most popular setting for Swedish films, however, has surely been the inner landscape, or more precisely, the place where existential stories about human relations are played out. Dramatists such as August Strindberg and Lars Norn, and filmmakers such as Ingmar Bergman, Jan Troell and Bo Widerberg, are among the leading storytellers of their age. All possess or possessed the kind of individualistic streakand the refusal to compromisethat enabled them to reach slightly deeper and go slightly further than others. Later filmmakers with the same maverick qualities include Bjrn Runge, Kristian Petri and others described below.

Roy Andersson
Roy Andersson may not be just out of the cradlein fact he is now something of a veteranbut he is still
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very much alive and kicking. His breakthrough came in 1970 with A Swedish Love Story (En krlekshistoria), a sensitive account of teenage love. Whereas that film took a fairly conventional approach to its subject, Anderssons next, Giliap, was much more stylized and peculiar. Both audiences and critics, however, found little to like in this somewhat lugubrious relationship drama about a quartet of people in a restaurant in a small Swedish town. Badly stung by the censure, Roy Andersson turned his back on feature films for a lengthy spellall of 25 yearsand instead went into commercials, at which he was highly successful. He used this genre to hone his own personal style to perfection: dry humor, meticulously prepared images, and panoramas of amateur actors with white-painted faces. Andersson made a triumphant comeback in 2000 with Songs from the Second Floor (Snger frn andra
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vningen), which won the Critics Prize at Cannes. The film is a political commentary on a Sweden in which people have difficulty communicating and market forces govern their livesall delivered with Roy Anderssons special brand of laconic humor. It took him only seven years to come up with his next film, You, the Living (Du levande). Here, too, Andersson uses his closely detailed imagery and his special blend of existentialism and humor, although this time adopting a slightly lighter tone.

Lukas Moodysson
Like Ingmar Bergman, Moodysson is a unique auteur who goes his own way. His breakthrough came in 1988 with his first feature film, Show Me Love, about a lesbian affair between two young girls. It no longer seems particularly controversial, and it tells its story in a simple, straightforward way, but Moodyssons subsequent offerings would show that he is as nonconformist as a filmmaker as he used to be as a poeta genre in which he was relatively well-known in Sweden before switching to cinema. Moodysson has had the courage to step backhe has not walked the familiar path of small-time art film to big-time movie. Instead, he has taken the hard, uncomfortable road, emphasizing small scale and a more exclusive approach. As for instance in the brutal A Hole in My Heart (Ett hl i mitt hjrta), filmed in a closed-off, seedy environment where two men and a woman act out their fears and fantasies with each other while shooting a porno movie. Or as in Lilya 4-Ever, where Moodysson describes the tragic fate of a Russian girl who is first abandoned by her mother and then forced into prostitution in Sweden. The film was widely acclaimed for its

realistic account of human trafficking and what it entails for the victim. After these two films, Moodysson stepped back even further and offered audiences what can best be described as a visual stream of consciousness in Container. Few people bought tickets, very few, which surprised neither the cinema owners nor the directorbut the film was nevertheless something of an ideological triumph. In the autumn of 2008, Moodysson is once more in the public eye, this time with Mammoth, which by Swedish standards has an enormous budget, totaling SEK 70 million4. The movie was shot in a number of different countries and the cast includes internationally known actors.

Ruben stlund
Ruben stlund is a relative newcomer, but, like Roy Andersson, has stubbornly ignored the usual funding sources and gone his own way. After a number of prizewinning short films, including Autobiographical Scene Number 6882 (Scen nr. 6882 ur mitt liv), he made his full-length movie debut with The Guitar Mongoloid (Gitarrmongot), the story of a group of odd characters in Gothenburg. As unusual as it is well made, this is a semi-documentary built on the emotions rather than on classic dramatic composition. stlund finished his second feature film, Involuntary (De ofrivilliga), described as a tragic comedy or a comic tragedy just in time for the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed in the Un Certain Regard category. Ruben stlund is part owner of the Plattform production company, which has grown rapidly from a two-man venture (stlund and Erik Hemmendorf) into
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An Extraordinary Study in Human Degradation , shot on a cell phone by Patrik Eriksson, who also plays the lead.

a busy outfit with a staff of ten. Besides stlunds movies, Plattform has also produced Swedens first feature film shot entirely on a cell phone An Extraordinary Study in Human Degradation, of which more laterand shows every sign of becoming increasingly influential in Swedish cinema.

Agnieszka Lukasiak
Agnieszka Lukasiak arrived in Sweden from Poland as a political refugee in 1984. She first came to the attention of Swedish audiences as a skilled, uncompromising documentary filmmaker with Forgotten (Bortglmda), which describes the tough lives of two young Polish women in a Poland where everything is

Approx. USD 9.4 billion or EUR 7.2 billion

for sale and nothing is worth anything anymore. Agnieszka Lukasiak deliberately broke with the (misguided) convention that says documentaries should only observe and document events, not influence and stage them. Insisting that objectivity is an illusion, she dramatized scenes that, she argued, would have taken place anyway. With a passion for social justice equaled only by her irrepressible energy, Agnieszka Lukasiak has also produced the documentary Algeria: The Nameless War (Algeria). This is a very personal film that shows us both how the director herself experienced the country and how young people go about their lives in the shadow of the civil war. She is currently working with her first feature film, as yet untitled.
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Swedes in Hollywood
1 Lasse Hallstrm. Director. The Swede with the best record in the U.S. After a number of successful Swedish movies, particularly My Life as a Dog (Mitt liv som hund), which was nominated for two Academy Awards in 1985, he crossed the Atlantic. American debut: Once Around. Selection of other titles: Whats Eating Gilbert Grape?, The Shipping News, Casanova and The Hoax. 1 Mikael Hfstrm. Director. Based in the U.K. but makes films for Hollywood and the Weinstein brothers. Titles: Derailed, 1408 and (coming) Shanghai. 1 Johan Renck. One-time video director. Feature film debut in 2008 with Downloading Nancy. Listed as one of movie magazine Varietys top ten directors to watch out for. 1 Jonas kerlund. Music video director who has worked with Madonna, U2 and Metallica. Two feature films: Spun and (coming) The Horsemen. 1 Stellan Skarsgrd. Actor. Often in action.
Selection of titles: The Exorcist: The Beginning, Mamma Mia!, Pirates of the Caribbean.

Jens Jonsson
Jens Jonsson made his directorial film debut in 2007 with The King of Ping Pong (Pingpong-kingen). After already having made numerous short filmsincluding Fragile, Reparation and Brother of Mine (Bror min)many of which have won awards at Swedish and foreign film festivals, and also having directed a TV series, Good Morning, Children (God morgon alla barn), and written the screenplay for Ciao Bella (see above), Jens Jonsson was probably the best-qualified newcomer ever to have reached a Swedish movie set. The King of Ping Pong, about a bullied young boy in northernmost Sweden, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. (despite the fact that it includes an American flag with the word fuck on it, which riled some of the Sundance audience), and showed that Jonsson was as comfortable with the full-length format as with the short. Trained at both design school and film school, Jens Jonsson always creates strange and beautiful, toned-down worlds of his own in his narratives. Forthcoming projects include a relationship drama, Rational Solution (De rationella), for which Jonsson has written the screenplay. The director is Jrgen Bergmark.

screen phenomenon, family life, its no surprise audiences flocked to see it. Family ties and love relationships were also the theme of Bloms second feature film, Nina Frisk, about an air hostess searching for happiness and peace of mind. Maria Blom combines humor with a deep understanding of peoples desires, dreams and needs. The summer of 2008 saw the arrival of what was actually her first film, Fishy, which had been put on ice to make way for Dalecarlians but was now considered worth distributing.

Josef Fares
Josef Fares is a highly talented director and also one of the most successful Swedish filmmakers of the past decade. His breakthrough came with his very first film, Jalla! Jalla! a lively comedy about love across the integration borderwhich he followed up with a farcical police comedy, Kopps. While he likes to talk about his great passion for action and the martial arts in cinema, he has yet to make a full-length film (despite countless short ones) in this genre. On the contrary, his later efforts have revealed a more serious side. Fares emigrated to Sweden from Lebanon, and Zozo is partly autobiographical, describing a boys flight from the civil war in Beirut to Sweden, while his latest film, Leo, is a grim drama about street violence and its dire consequences. Josef Fares next film is described as a romantic comedy.

1 Peter Stormare. Actor. Frequent participant in

movies and TV series, from Seinfeld to Constantine.

Imad Creidi in the title role of Zozo, from 2005, directed by Josef Fares.

1 Lena Olin. Actress. Selection of titles: Havana,

Casanova, The Ninth Gate.

Maria Blom
Maria Blom is both a dramatist and a theater director. In 2004, she filmed her own play, Dalecarlians (Masjvlar), which exploits the town-country dichotomya recurring theme in Swedish cinema. Since this comedy also centers around another popular
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1 Pernilla August. Actress. Darth Vaders mother in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones. 1 Per Hallberg. Sound editor. Two Oscar statuettes,
for Braveheart and The Bourne Ultimatum.

My Bodell in Fishy, directed by Maria Blom.

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the producers
In Sweden, film directing is largely a male pursuit. This seems a paradox, given that the gender equality perspective has been acquiring ever-greater prominence in the Swedish film industry. The proportion of women in leading positions has improved slightly over the past few years, though.
Producer Anna Anthony.

Simpler Life (Ett enklare liv) and The Loved One (Den lskade). The latter is described as a movie about passion, music, class, identity and dreams, and the discrepancy between what we want to be and what we are. The director is Lisa Langseth. Q&A with Helen Ahlsson;
Whats the gender equality situation in the industry nowadays?

We have a long way to go. Men are still the norm, both in society and in the movie industry. Things have improved, of course, but this is mostly because the industry has grownthere are many more production companies nowadays.
What makes a good producer?

In 2005, 20 percent of Swedish directors were women and in 2007 about 35 percentnot far off the 40 percent target set by the Swedish Film Institute for the next few years; however, figures for the first six months of 2008 show a drop in women directors to 25 percent. On the other hand, the basis for this figure is limited, since far fewer films opened in the spring of 2008 than in the same period in previous years. In recent years, too, quite a number of creative women film producers have emerged. Media 16

coverage has sometimes given the impression that this occupation is dominated by women nowadays, but in fact the figures for producers are about the same as for directors and scriptwriters. It is clear, however, that an unusually large number of talented and successful women producers have entered the profession in recent years, and all have made their mark by focusing on content rather than just funding. Among them are Anna Croneman at Bob Film, Helena Danielsson at Hepp Film, and those described below.

Anna Anthony
Perhaps the best qualified among the new generation of creative producers is Anna Anthony, whose career got off to a flying start when she began working for the successful Memfis Film production company under the industrys leading producer of modern times, Lars Jnsson (who drew Moodysson the film genius out of Moodysson the poet). Anna Anthony quickly took on and supervised the career of one of the most promising young directors in Swedish cinema, Josef Fares

(see above), and their collaboration is still continuing. She also produced Falkenberg Farewell (Farvl Falkenberg), an account of small-town lives in mental turmoil. Directed by Jesper Granslandt, the movie was almost universally acclaimed. The dynamic duo Anna Anthony & Josef Fares have a new film in the pipeline.

Helen Ahlsson
The Tre Vnner (Three Friends) production company has been operating since 1995, and was

started by three scriptwriters who wanted to have a greater say in how their work was treated. The circle of friends has now widened, and one of the latest additions is Helen Ahlsson. She made her debut as a feature film producer with the documentary The Armwrestler from Solitude (Armbryterskan frn Ensamheten), followed in 2007 by the feature film That Special Summer (Kid Svensk). Helen Ahlsson now has three projects under way: a documentary, The New Era (Den nya tiden), and two feature films, A

Theres no rulebook to follow, so you have to find your own way. But OKincredible stamina and stubbornness, a desire to say something, to reach out.
Thats usually the kind of thing directors and scriptwriters say. Arent producers supposed to be hard-nosed number crunchers whose job is to keep artists feet on the ground?

Ive never embraced that role. I take a long-term approach, working with a small band of very exciting artists. We explore together, starting with short films and going on from there.
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the actors
When Danish director Simon Staho was asked why he works almost exclusively with Swedish actors, he replied, They act as though their lives depended on it.
Patrik, 1.5, starring Gustaf Skarsgrd, Torkel Petersson and Tom Ljungman. Director Ella Lemhagen.

While this may not be true of all of Swedens many actors, it is an apt description of leading names such as Stellan Skarsgrd, Mikael Persbrandt, Michael Nyqvist, Pernilla August, Marie Richardson, Lena Endre, Reine Brynolfsson, Tuva Novotny and many others, including the following.

Gustaf Skarsgrd
Originally known as one of the two sons who followed international star Stellan Skarsgrd into acting, Gustaf Skarsgrd has shown in recent years that he is well equipped to carve out a career of his own. He first appeared on the big screen in 1989, in the spy movie Code Name Coq Rouge (Tcknamn Cog Rouge), playing his fathers eight-year-old nephew. Not surprisingly, this was followed by a lengthy break. In 2003, he returned with a bang in the
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Oscar-nominated movie Evil (Ondskan, directed by Mikael Hfstrm), playing a sadistic upper-class pupil at a boarding school. Since then, things have moved fast, and Gustaf Skarsgrd has been increasingly in the public eye. As an actor, he has an intensity and a fierce presence that has caused a growing number of directors to seek his services. In 2008 alone, he can be seen in IscariotTwo Brothers, One Debt (Iskariot tv brder, en skuld), ArnThe Knight Templar (Arn Tempelriddaren), ArnThe Kingdom at Roads End (Arn Riket vid vgens slut), and Patrik, Age 1.5 (Patrik 1,5). And further films are in the works.

she gets a major film role. This is true of Sofia Ledarp, who, despite having trod the boards for fifteen years, seemed to pop up from nowhere in 2007 to play the female lead in ke Sandgrens relationship drama To Love Someone (Den man lskar). In the movie, she plays Lena, who has escaped from a destructive relationship with a violent man and is now living in a secure relationship with a new partner. One day, her old boyfriend gets in touch, and everyones nerves start to quiver. So do the audiencesmainly as a result of Ledarps ability to subtly convey both emotional fragility and passion and aggression. She was rewarded with a Golden Beetle5 for the best female lead.

Sofia Ledarp
No matter how long and hard an actress has worked in theater, she is considered a new name as soon as
5

At Swedens equivalent of the annual Oscar ceremony, prizes in the form of a gilded beetle are awarded for outstanding achievements in Swedish cinema.

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Daniel Gtschenhjelm and Sofia Helin in the 2007 comedy Nina Frisk , directed by Maria Blom.

Sofia Ledarp is still active on stage, currently at the Stockholm City Theater, and can also be seen in two different TV series, Miscarriage of Justice (Oskyldigt dmd) and The Witches Dance (Hxdansen).

Sofia Helin
Sofia Helin has been active on both big screen and small since 1996, but only became a household name when she appeared in Maria Bloms popular movie Dalecarlians, which paints an entertaining and easily accessible picture of the classic towncountry conflict. Sofia Helin is best known for her leading part in the gargantuan Swedish movie project centering on the crusading knight templar
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Arn Magnusson (more about this later), but it was primarily in Maria Bloms comediesboth Dalecarlians and Nina Frisk that she had the chance to display her full range of talents. The two roles are totally different but both are informed at heart by a sense of compassion that Sofia Helin brings out and sustains admirably. She also performs in the two Arn movies (see above) and in the coming title Metropia.

Magnus Krepper
Magnus Krepper has been around for some time and has considerably more experience than the above, but has yet to achieve the breakthrough he deserves with his energetic, intense style of acting. He swings freely between genres

and roles, instilling each character with the same blend of strength and vulnerability, and oftenin particularwith a repulsive but suggestive brutality. The latter quality earned him a Golden Beetle award for his portrait of a drug dealer in Bjrn Runges hellish drama Mouth to Mouth (Mun mot mun). Krepper has had few leading roles. Rather, he is usually seen in catalytic supporting roles that move the plot forward and give it a new twist. Besides Mouth to Mouth, his best-known performances have been in Daybreak (Om jag vnder mig om), again with Runges script and direction, The Cracks in the Wall (Sprickorna i muren), based on a novel by Lars Gustafsson, and the TV series The Confession (Beknnelsen).

g e n r e s

Documentaries
Swedish documentaries have long been going out into the world to report on it. A century ago, Prince Wilhelm embarked on just such an expedition, and although his films are scarcely palatable today, given their colonialist perspective, they heralded the many forays abroad that Swedish documentarians would make in future years. The 1960s and 1970s brought us prominent figures such as Arne Sucksdorff (My Home Is Copacabana), and film reports on the outside world culminated during these politically oriented decades. Documentaries with a global perspective are still a thriving industry today, however. The foremost representative of the genre is currently the Atmo Media Network. A production company founded in 2000 by, among others, two filmmakers well established in Sweden, Erik Gandini and Tarik Saleh, it has won many awards. Atmo has produced political, aesthetically sophisticated and prizewinning documentaries such as Surplus (about global consumerism), GitmoThe New Rules of War (Gitmo Krigets nya spelregler, about the Guantnamo Bay detention camp in Cuba) and Sacrificio (about Che Guevara). The next film from Italian-born Gandini will be Italy in the Year Zero (Italien r noll), while Tarik Saleh will be back in 2009 with an ambitious project
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children growing into adulthood in the Stockholm suburb of Jordbro extends over 35 years. Projects of this magnitude and duration have never been seen since, but the same spirit of inquiry and impassioned social commentary is evident in the work of people like David Aronowitsch and Hanna Heilborn, who produce touching and disturbing animated documentaries, Nahid Persson, maker of a widely acclaimed 2004 film about the situation of prostitutes in Iran, Prostitution: Behind the Veil (Prostitution bakom sljan), and Fredrik von Krusenstjerna, who recently examined the bizarrely corrupt Polish funeral industry in Necrobusiness. Tove Torbirnsson is the Swedish Film Institutes documentary film consultant. She was asked:
How is Swedish documentary film doing these days?
Gitmo, a documentary from 2006 on the Guantnamo Bay detention camp, by Erik Gandini and Tarik Saleh of the Atmo Media Network.

perspectives. Documentaries work at both the societal and the individual level.
And the future?

When I began as a consultant, I sought a daring approach to form, a high degree of relevance, and narrative experimentation. This is something I think has developed. My film horizon extends two years into the future, and I think the prospects are good, really good. Things are very promising.
Is there anyone in particular youre looking forward to?

entitled Metropiaa dystopian computer animation of a dilapidated and totalitarian EU zone. Two of the voices are by American stars Vincent Gallo and Juliette Lewis. The Atmo stable also includes one of Swedens most creative and ingenious editors and short-film makers, Johan Sderberg. He was responsible for the globally acclaimed music video showing George W. Bush and Tony Blair singing a duet, My Love, which was spread via the internet and is still accessible on YouTube.
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Like in most countries, the documentary camera in Sweden focuses principally on the domestic scene, however. Here, veterans such as Stefan Jarl and Rainer Hartleb have ruled the roost, each producing an ambitious series of films that attracted big audiences. In what is known as his mods trilogyThey Call Us Misfits (De kallar oss mods), A Decent Life (Ett anstndigt liv) and Generation to Generation (Det sociala arvet)Jarl monitors his protagonists lives over a 25-year period, while Hartlebs six films about

Its doing very well for a small country like ours. It occupies a strong position both here and in the world at large. Documentary films are a visual interpretation of how directors experience the world. Theyre a unique form of narration based on the unknown, on antagonisms and conflicts, on frictions, and they reflect a deep yearning and desire to grasp the complexity of human life.
What is the mission of documentary film?

There are quite a few to choose from, but Twin Brothers (Pangpang-brder) is one of my favorites. Axel Danielson has followed his nephews, two twin boys, one of whom is a little person, throughout their childhoodwith all that it means in terms of rivalry, brotherhood and identification. Its a powerful and very visual film that really gets to you. Another favorite is Babak Najafi. Hes definitely one of the best. To say Najafi achieved a breakthrough with his short film Elixir would be an exaggerationas we all know, its not easy to make a name for yourself with shortsbut this dryly humorous story of a group of young immigrants who get hold of a mysterious potion that turns whoever drinks it into an ethnic Swede (in this case a fully integrated immigrant with blond hair and a bit of a wimpy personality) at least brought him to the attention of the industry. Elixir was a fictitious piece, but it said more about feelings of exclusionand for that matter about latent racismthan ten academic theses on the subject. Otherwise, Babak Najafi has mainly produced
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I believe documentaries can gauge the extent to which culture and democracy are alive and flourishing in a given country. They dont always have an immediate impact, but lead to changes that, while not perhaps quantifiable in terms of practical politics, nevertheless lodge in viewers minds and open up new

Ten Swedish movies you should see before you die

1. Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander, 1982), by Ingmar Bergman. Epic family drama based on the directors own childhood. 2. Scenes from a Marriage (Scener ur ett ktenskap, 1973), by Ingmar Bergman. Rugged relationship drama. 3. Ravens End (Kvarteret Korpen, 1963), by Bo Widerberg. Vibrant working-class tale with strong performances. 4. Songs from the Second Floor (Snger frn andra vningen, 2000), by Roy Andersson. Dark but entertaining social panorama.
Hidden (Gmd), short animated documentary from 2002, by Hanna Heilborn, David Aronowitsch and Mats Johansson.

5. The Man on the Roof (Mannen p taket, 1976), by Bo Widerberg. Swedens all-time best crime thriller. 6. Four Shades of Brown (Fyra nyanser av brunt, 2004), by Tomas Alfredson. Dark and satirical relationship drama. 7. Lilya 4-ever (Lilja 4-ever, 2002), by Lukas Moodysson. In-your-face human trafficking drama. 8. Il Capitano (1991), by Jan Troell. Strong depiction of a real-life murder case. 9. The Laser Man (Lasermannen, 2005), by Mikael Marcimain. TV mini-series about a traumatic social event in Sweden. 10. Torment (Hets, 1944), by Alf Sjberg. Classic on the theme of young man versus sadistic teacher named Caligula. (Script by Ingmar Bergman.)

documentaries, ranging over a broad spectrum, from children at risk in his native country, Iran, to a portrait of a homosexual man and his beloved bulldog. Najafi is attracting more and more attention. At present, he is working on a documentary that will be one of a portrait series about people living in societys backyard. He is definitely a name to watch out for.

VERY MOVING PICTURES

Im never going to use ordinary film again, cried that old aesthete David Lynch exultantly after shooting Inland Empire on digital video, DV. While there are still many who are not as enthusiastic, and who argue that DV will never be able to deliver the same color, depth and focus as the celluloid film of old, the technology is nevertheless gaining ground in Sweden. Above all, it represents
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a much cheaper and more manageable approach to filmmaking for young newcomers seeking to gain a foothold in cinema. Jesper Ganslandt is one such newcomer. His movie, Falkenberg Farewell, caused some old aesthetes to turn up their noses, but many others hailed it. In principle, he filmed and directed his own lifefreely interpreted, of courseas a young man in a sleepy small town. The film came to symbolize alienation and existential disorientation among young men in Sweden in general, and appealed to many who saw it. Hate Gothenburg (Hata Gteborg), another film on a shoestring budget featuring a shaky camera and tormented youth, has the same kind of narrative passion and presence. Robert Lillhonga will be in demand as a director in the future as well. Those who turn up their noses at films where the camera is never still and focus is not always an issue are hardly likely to enjoy the next trendthe cell

Fanny och Alexander, one of Ingmar Bergmans best-loved works. Alexander is played by Bertil Guve and Fanny by Pernilla Allwin.

Subway choir in Songs from the Second Floor, directed by Roy Andersson.

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Mia Engberg, director of the Dirty Diaries project.

phone movie, which makes DVs look like a miracle of visual accomplishment. The summer of 2008 saw the arrival in public of the first feature film shot on a private cell phone: An Extraordinary Study in Human Degradation. Patrik Eriksson has documented his own nervous breakdown after his girlfriend left himand the result is nothing if not intimately self-revealing. The film has also received plenty of media coverage. But it is not exactly new. Self-scrutinizing diary filmspreferably shot with a shaky hand camera, documentary-styleare now as common as sliced bread. This of course is due to the mass breakthrough of digital video (suddenly, everyone can shoot film indiscriminately and select their images in the editing room, i.e., the computer), but psychologically speaking, it could also be due to the fact that in a society where success is everything, confessed weak26

nesses have come to be regarded as something exotic and titillating. Dirty Diaries is another cell phone project, headed by director Mia Engberg, who frequently adopts queer and gender perspectives. This project, which has only just begun, involves women directors shooting erotic short films with their phones. The only conditions are that all concerned must be over 18 years of age and that no one is hurt. Engbergs aim is to redefine pornography and make it queer, feminist and innovative.

Comedy
sa-Nisse is a bumbling character who first appeared in comic strips and then arrived on the cinema screen in the 1930s and 1940s. This is ancient history, of course, but his spirit has continued to hover

over subsequent Swedish efforts to entertain cinema audiences. The movie Who Pulled the Plug? (Gta Kanal, and its sequela third is in the pipeline), a comic farce about a boat race on Swedens longest canal, is perhaps the best example of this particular category. But there are others who have kept audiences laughing by taking a different approach. In recent decades, Mns Herngren and Hannes Holm have delivered a number of witty reflections on human relationships. Their principal asset is that, like other good storytellers, they write what they know. From their debut with Adam & Eve (Adam & Eva) to their latest premiere, Wonderful and Loved by All, the two have mirrored their own lives and the lives of those around them, creating comedies that many people can identify with. Their next film (about a male synchronized swimming team) suggests however that they may be taking a break from self-reflection. Another representative of the same idiom is Killinggnget (The Goat Kids Gang), a group of comic actors and stand-up comedians who excelled in ironic and black humor in a series of popular TV shows. They have provided some of the funniest and most sharply observed moments in Swedish cinema and TV, not least in their feature film Screwed in Tallinn (Torsk p Tallinn), in which a group of menall losers of one kind or anothertravel to the Estonian capital to meet women eager to wed. The comedy groups greatest triumph, however, may have been the screenplay they wrote for one of the most ambitious, strange and demanding exercises in dark Swedish drama to have appeared in recent years: Four Shades of Brown (Fyra nyanser av brunt). The film offered an introspective panorama of a clean and polished Sweden with a neurotic,

seething inner life. The singular nature of this work must also be attributed in great measure to director Tomas Alfredson. In Killinggngets films, Alfredson displays a unique ability to peer deep into the human soul. But he also has no problem about striking out on his own. In adapting the Swedish bestselling novel Let the Right One In for the screen, his clear, understated narrative style enabled him to remain true to the spirit of the original. This tale of exclusion, focusing on a young boys relationship with a vampire (!), may not exactly be a comedy, but it was edifying to see how Alfredson did the wellwritten book on which it is based full justice. More about this film later.

Crime movies
Anyone seeking to understand Sweden on the basis of our output of popular films might well conclude that our relatively small population is due to the fact that we keep murdering one another. Brutal crime movies are so ubiquitous in Sweden nowadays that it sometimes seems we own a franchise on them. The longest-running and most popular body of work so far is the series about the Stockholm-based police detective Martin Beck. To date, it encompasses 30 full-length episodes, including the two films from Bo Widerberg described below. Some of the episodes were made for cinema, but most were shot directly for DVD. The first six were based on a well-known series of crime novels by Swedish writers Sjwall and Wahl, while the rest were loosely based on the same characters. Mikael Persbrandt, the biggest name in the series, plays Becks boorish lieutenant, Gunvald Larsson, and promised after the 24th episode
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expert Irene Huss (created by Helene Tursten). And more will doubtless be coming. The two projects emphasize quantity, as we can see, and many would argue that quality has suffered as a result. Some of the works, however, have been of a high standard, and a couple were exceptionally good: The Man on the Roof (Mannen p taket) and The Man from Majorca (Mannen frn Mallorca), both presided over by one of Swedens leading directors, Bo Widerberg.

Horror and special effects

Angela Kovcs as detective Irene Huss in The Broken Tang Horse (Den krossade tanghsten) from 2008. Director Martin Asphaug.

Domestic output
Swedes are keener to watch Swedish movies than Norwegians are to watch Norwegian movies. Of all cinema tickets sold in Sweden in 2007, 21.6 percent were for domestic films, while in Norway the corresponding figure was 16.0 percent. But we are of course far outstripped by the more patriotic French, who top the European table: in France, domestic cinema has a market share of no less than 36.5 percent.
Source: Swedish Film Institute

that he would now put the role behind him. For a long while he seemed to have done so, but in early 2008 plans for two more films were revealed. Shortly after, it became clear that a further 13 movies featuring police detective Kurt Wallander are in the making. Wallander already has 22 films to his credit, so he is destined to overtake Beck in terms of exposure. All the episodes for both big screen and small about the disillusioned policeman from Ystad in southern Sweden are based on the novels by Henning Mankell, with titles such as The White Lioness (Den vita lejoninnan), Before the Frost (Innan frosten) and Mastermind. Other top police of book fame who have found their way onto the screen include Van Veeteren (from the Hkan Nesser thrillers), who operates in a fictitious European city called Maardam, and martial arts

Making horror and science fiction films is a costly business, and since Sweden is a small country with a limited catchment area, this type of genre movie has long been on the decline. In recent years, however, some ambitious efforts have been made to broaden the range of Swedish cinema. In 2005, Mns Mrlind and Bjrn Stein came onto the sci-fi scene with an action film entitled Storm, an agreeable and largely successful mix of TV game, thriller and Matrix, with a touch of Freudian therapy. There have been a number of less successful ventures, too, such as the vampire slasher Frostbite (Frostbiten)although it undoubtedly had certain technical qualities, such as the makeup and computergenerated imagery (CGI). The production company responsible for these, Fido Film, won a prize for its efforts at the Scream Feast, a U.S. festival for horror and science fiction movies. Fido also helped director Tomas Alfredson inject life into the literary bestseller Let the Right One In, another discourse on nocturnal bloodsuckers. Rather than simply chilling audiences, the film

The Fido Film production company was awarded a prize for the special effects in Frostbite at the 2008 Scream Feast in Los Angeles.

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Mostly American movies

In Sweden, like in most other countries, people prefer to watch American cinema. Despite our closer cultural and geographical proximity to the European continent, we watch very few movies from that part of the world.
PRINCIPAL COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION SHARE OF VISITS

version is something as rare as a sensitive and romantic vampire film in a suburban setting. It opened in the autumn of 2008, but was previewed earlier in the year at the Gteborg International Film Festival, where it won well-deserved awards both for the film as such and for the photography. It has also attracted attention in the U.S., and film companies have bought the rights to an American and a British version. John Ajvide Lindqvist, who wrote the novel on which the film is based, was almost as successful with another, even more unusual creature from the Swedish narrative tradition, the zombie. In Handling the Undead (Hanteringen av odda), as in his vampire novel, Lindqvist adopts an existential, human perspective on the inhuman, which doesnt mean there are not plenty of menacing undead staggering around. In fact, there are hordes of them. How this is to be presented on screen without being embarrassing we have yet to learn, but we do know that the task has been entrusted to a talented director: Kristian Petri. Petri has previously made both thoughtful, perceptive films about human relations such as Between Summers (Sommaren) and Details (Details)and what might best be described as poetic documentaries. His job now is to bring out the distinctive qualities of this zombie movie. Petri has previously admitted to viewing the task with a certain amount of trepidation: Theres really nothing more silly and ridiculous than tottering screen zombies. Which is why this is such an exciting challenge. Im going to try to revitalize the genreto give the undead more dignity. Certain scenes in the book are causing him par30

ticular concern. Like the one where the zombies dance in a circle in the moonlight. That could take silliness to new heights! The film is scheduled to reach cinemas in 2009 at the earliest.
Fido Film Thomas Deutschmann is a producer with the abovementioned Fido Film, a special effects company specializing in both physical and digital effects. Here, he talks about computer-generated imagery (CGI):
Are we good at special effects in Sweden?

USA 64.59% Sweden 21.55% U.K. 8.26% France 2.23% Germany 1.14% Spain 0.56% Denmark 0.40% Norway 0.26% Mexico 0.24% Japan 0.13%

Source: Swedish Film Institute

Where makeups concerned, we have a few people who are among the best there is, but no single company in Sweden can compete with the physical effects companies you find in many other European countries. Were OK for new talentthe attribute production course in Skellefte in northern Sweden is a great help in this respectbut that section of the industry has difficulty moving up a gear since international jobs are hard to find. For practical reasons, film companies usually like to have physical effects people close at hand. Right now were doing makeup jobs for Norway and another physical job for a feature film in the Netherlands, but in both cases we got the work because were also doing digital effects for these projects. Since we can supply artists of the very highest class, Sweden has quite a fantastic potential, on the CGI side, too. What we produce here at home often amazes big international studios when they

hear what few resources weve had at our disposal. Ive met the top executives at Framestore, Double Negative, Glassworks and MPC in London (who work with Narnia, Harry Potter and others), and all have been full of praise for what we do. Realistic cats, wolves and other organic creatures are complicated things to tackle, and what weve managed to produce quickly and cheaply has impressed people. There are plenty of Swedes in London and theyre generally considered to be among the best in the business.
Is yours a growing industry?

abroad, and although some are now returning home there simply isnt a studio in Sweden capable of competing with the big international companies. Its up to us in Sweden to acknowledge our potential and dare to make the necessary investments. The death of distance conceptwhich refers to the ease of linking together animators in different countries by means of high-speed digital transmissionis something we could take advantage of to a much greater extent.

No, not particularlyfor some reason, no studio in Sweden has managed to harness the available talent properly. Were losing people all the time to companies

The Swedish knight

A project that is in total contrast to the abovein terms of both production conditions and contentis
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television
Joakim Ntterqvist in the title role of the 2007 megaproject ArnThe Knight Templar, directed by Dane Peter Flinth.

the screen adaptation of the popular books about Swedish crusader Arn Magnusson. The Arn project was presented in 2006, and it is no exaggeration to say that many were skeptical about its chances. While the two films (and a coming TV series) are based on the bestselling suite of novels by popular author Jan Guillou, Swedish historical adventure stories have never found much favor with home audiences, to put it mildly. This time, however, the makers had something their predecessors never hada great deal of money. With a budget of over SEK 200 million, the Arn project is by far the most ambitious venture in the history of Swedish filmmaking. The bulk of Swedens acting elite appear dressed in beards, coats of mail and elegant gowns, and everything is.well, large-scale, lavish and very reminiscent of American prototypes such as Kingdom of Heaven.
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The movies describe how young Arn spends much of his 12th-century childhood at the Varnhem monastery in the province of Vstergtland, learns languages and martial arts, and eventually departs as a crusader to the Holy Land, where he comes into conflict with the Saracen leader Saladin. Thus audiences are treated to an epic adventure story complete with battle scenes and romantic episodes, although the emphasis is on the latter. The project has been both acclaimed and criticized (many feel the money could have been better spent on twenty ordinary films), but it has undoubtedly appealed to Swedish audiences. The first Arn film quickly exceeded its dream target of a million paying customers. The second in the series opened in the autumn of 2008. When released abroad in 2008/2009, the two films will have been edited down to one.

Given a population of just nine million, few movies are able to capture large audiences in Sweden, and those described as box-office hits have usually sold well under half a million tickets. On TV, however, a well-made and exciting series such as The Regicide (Kungamordet) can surpass that figure fairly easily. The fact is that serious drama series like those we used to import (especially from Denmark) have appeared frequently in recent years. The Regicide centers on a power struggle within Swedens largest political party, the Social Democrats, but also has a secondary plot line about wife-beatingwhich struck such a chord among viewers that, on the day after the broadcast, womens emergency shelters around Sweden were swamped with telephone calls from battered women. Persecution of women is also a theme of the more light-hearted TV series The Witches Dance, set in a small Swedish town. It is about a womens soccer team whose home playing field is a meadow where witches were burnt in the 17th century. The series was both well acted and entertaining, and each episode attracted around half a million viewers. Other reality-based series that show the TV film genre is alive and well in Sweden are The Laser Man (Lasermannen), which tells the true story of a deranged racist who shot eleven persons in Stockholm in the early 1990s, and Rise Up! (Upp till kamp),

a drama about the rise and fall of the 1968 political movement and its accompanying music scene. Both were directed by Mikael Marcimain, currently described as the new savior of Swedish TV moviemaking. Besides these two, he has also directed a popular thriller series, The Grave (Graven). All the above series were produced by or for the Swedish public service company, Sveriges Television (SVT). Commercial channels such as TV3, TV4 and Kanal 5 have made some attempts to break into television drama, but without successboth audiences and critics have found them wanting.

Ruth Vega Fernandez in the 2007 TV series Rise Up! , directed by the new savior of Swedish television, Mikael Marcimain.

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KR NUS MAG

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in conclusion
The term Swedish cinema covers an extremely wide range. From medieval action epics about the Swedish knight templar Arn and his holy crusade to Jerusalem, via contemporary takes on young immigrants integration problems, to small, ambitious documentaries about odd souls in Swedens backyard. Swedish horror and sci-fi movies have begun to take their first tottering steps, and the production of police and crime movies has virtually exploded in recent yearsas a result of which we now export fictitious detective superintendents at the same rate as moose souvenirs and Dalecarlian wooden horses. But alls well that ends wellat least if one focuses 34

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on the positive aspects of Swedish cinema production and on the filmmakers who are fired by passion, by a need to tell a story and by a conviction that movies are larger than life. But as in many other countries, the Swedish film industry suffers recurring crises, mainly due to a lack of fundsas always. Looking on the bright side, however, this shortage of money has meant that new filmmakers are constantly emerging who show that its possible to write large on the screen using small means. Swedens many emerging film talents are proof that Swedish cinema is alive and well. And that it didnt all end with Ingmar Bergman.

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piCTUre CrediTs
Cover photo: p. 3 p. 7 p. 8 p. 9 p. 11 p. 13 p. 15 (top) p. 15 (bottom) p. 17 p. 19 p. 20 p. 22 p. 24 p. 25 (top) p. 25 (bottom) p. 26 p. 28 p. 29 p. 32 p. 33 p. 35

Josef Fares: Emelie Asplund Scanpix, Ingmar Bergman: Magnus Skoglf

Malena Rydell Scanpix Jonas Jrneberg Tre Vnner John Hertov SF film Aina Bye Migma Film AB 2008. All rights reserved. Walter Hirsch Roy Andersson Filmproduktion AB Plattform Produktion Per-Anders Jrgensen Memfis Film Memfis Film Sara Mac Key Memfis Film Tomas Michaelsson 2008 Filmlance Per-Anders Jrgensen Memfis Film Atmo Story Arne Carlsson 1982 AB Svensk Filmindustri, Svenska Filminstitutet Studio 24 Marika Heidebck Alexandra Aristarhova Nordisk film Solid Entertainment / Fido Film Erik Aavatsmark 2007 AB Svensk Filmindustri. All rights reserved. Marcimain-van Hoytema Sveriges Televison Colin Nutley Tony Nutley, Sweetwater production AB, Magnus Krepper: Ola Kjelbye, Sofia Helin: Per-Anders Jrgensen Memfis Film, Roy Andersson Studio 24, Michelle Williams: Per-Anders Jrgensen Memfis Film, Tarik Saleh & Erik Gandini: Magnus Reed Atmo, Tuva Novotny: Peter Mlqvist, Sofia Ledarp: Knut Koivisto, Ella Lemhagen: Anders Ryderling SF film 2008

UsefUL WebsiTes
Swedish Film Institute: www.sfi.se Ingmar Bergman Foundation: www.ingmarbergman.se Gteborg International Film Festival: www.filmfestival.org Stockholm International Film Festival: www.stockholmfilmfestival.se Uppsala International Short Film Festival: www.shortfilmfestival.com List of Swedish Films (Swedish Film Institute): www.swedishfilm.org Swedish Gore Film Society: swegore.wordpress.com Rocky (the cartoon dog): www.rocky-digital.com

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