WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY JENS ASSUR RAVENS (KORPARNA) CAST

Agne Reine Brynolfsson Gärd Maria Heiskanen Klas Jacob Nordström Alvar Roger Storm Krister Peter Dalle Veronika Saga Samuelsson Carsten Jens Jörn Spottag Göran Gösta Viklund Pelle Bula Max Vobora

CREW

Director of Photography Jonas Alarik FSF Production Designer Ulrika von Vegesack Costume Designer Mia Andersson Maria Felldin Almgren Makeup Artist Lisa Mustafa Casting / Adults Sara Törnkvist Casting / Children Maggie Widstrand Editor Åsa Mossberg Sound Designer/ Mixer Mattias Eklund VFX Supervisor Torbjörn Olsson Composer Peter von Poehl Line Producer Serina Björnbom Post Producer Peter Bengtsson Associate Producer Jennie Assur Executive Producer Lars Weiss Producers Jan Marnell, Tom Persson, Jens Assur Written and Directed by Jens Assur Produced by Film and Art Affairs and Right2Screen in co-production with Co_Made, Tiisch Film, Film i Väst, SVT, Right2Screen and Studio Jens Assur, with support from the Swedish Film Institute. WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY BASED ON THE NOVEL ”THE RAVENS” BY TOMAS BANNERHED. JENS ASSUR

Sweden | 107 Minutes | Feature Film | In Swedish With English Subtitles STARRING REINE BRYNOLFSSON MARIA HEISKANEN TIFF 2017 PR CONTACT JACOB NORDSTRÖM Emma Griffiths/ WORLD SALES RAVENS EMMA GRIFFITHS PR CELLULOID DREAMS TIFF CELL: +1 917-806-0599 2 rue Turgot – 75009 Paris E: [email protected] E: [email protected] W: www.eg-pr.com T: +33 1 4970 0370 (KORPARNA) SYNOPSIS 1970s, Sweden- Hard working farmer Agne (played by acclaimed actor Reine Brynolfsson) struggles with the harsh reality of his daily life, hoping his teenage son Klas will take over the farm and continue his legacy. Klas however, dreams of a world far away from this rural existence. Sumptuously lensed, this powerful coming of age story, written and directed by Jens Assur, paints a tangled web of shame, guilt, madness and the dreams of youth. THE DIRECTOR’S VISION To me, film direction is mainly about one thing: creating a meeting between actor and camera. That is the very essence of cinema. The character and the image. Together they shape the inner and the outer landscape. Ravens is characterised by restrained expression. It was made for the big screen and requires presence. The individual scene is where the drama can be found. That is where the inability, the suppressed emotions, and the unspoken expectations give rise to interpre- tation and reflection. That is why the takes are long and the cuts are few. I make films because I want to take the audience on a journey. Intellectually and emotionally, but also to another world, another life. The world in RAVENS is a small farm, surrounded by black, freshly ploughed fields. Where cows with bursting udders constantly crave attention. Where the underlying rock has brought generations of farmers to their knees. Where the horizon is a tree line. In that world, where there is no respite to be had, Agne (played by Reine Brynolfsson) is struggling to justify his choices and way of life. It is dark and menacing, within and without. RAVENS is about how we shape each other, about what we expect – directly and indirectly. It is about generational shifts and the dream of being able to shape our own lives. It takes place in Sweden, in the ’70s. But it could easily be a different place and a different time. I have a journalistic background. I spent years travelling to war zones like Somalia, Rwanda, Sudan, and the former Yugoslavia. My work then was about using images to depict complex social developments. My approach was often to share stories about the everyday lives of individuals there. I spent days, sometimes weeks or even months, following and documenting people’s actions. Back in Sweden, I would also follow different individuals and groups for long periods of time, for instance the Hells Angels, Neo-Nazis, or asylum seekers. I believe that all of these encounters have made me sensitive to believability and authenticity, and I incorporate that in my filmmaking. Everything we see on the screen has to be authentic – the place, the scenography, the costumes, the makeup, and especially the acting. Friction is a pre-requisite for believability. That is why I incorporate flaws and contradictions into my characters and settings. Like making the tyres on Agne’s tractor too big because he is vain, or having Gärd be a caring person only up until the day when her own life is at risk of falling apart, because she is selfish. For the film’s main character I chose to work with Reine Brynolfsson, one of Sweden’s most highly respected actors. We had worked together once before, on my first film The Last Dog in Rwanda, which was a rewarding and successful project for us both. We can communicate candidly, and we trust each other. There is no doubt that Agne is a demanding character in every conceivable way, mentally as well as physically. We gave Reine an exercise regimen to follow in order for his character to be believable. He exercised and ate according to a strict plan for more than a year. It was imperative for Agne to look and move like a farmer. All the farming elements in the film took place in real life. Reine himself did the scything and harvesting, and even delivered the calf, to name a few examples. Reine and I had a close dialogue on set, in which we went over the scenes together and formed Agne. I enjoy trying out new routes on set. I am not afraid to go off script. I am no stranger to letting scenes with a long dialogue be played out in silence and vice versa. To find Klas, the young boy, we scoured schools on the Swedish countryside. I did not want a hip city kid, but a country kid who as far as his age and actions were concerned was somewhere between boy and man. My wish for restrained acting in the film, combined with one of its many underlying themes being inability, meant that the role required a person with depth and presence. We found Jacob Nordström after visiting about a hundred schools. He exuded a reassuring kind of calm and intelligence. My overall vision for the film’s visual aesthetics was never to let it show that it takes place in Sweden or in the ’70s. For that reason, I exclusively used reference material from the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s, and from other parts of the world, predominantly Eastern Europe. The challenge was to find a place that still resembled a small ’70s farm – meaning it had to be relatively small, and the majority of the buildings had to be from the first half of the century – but that was still in use. I want a farmhouse covered in fibre cement and a yard paved with concrete, where function is prioritised over form. In my view, the farm and the landscape make up the film’s fourth character, one that evolves and changes along with the other characters. I want the tonality, the artistic expression, of my films to be cohesive frame- by-frame, scene-by-scene and act-by-act. I want the audience to uncover what the films are about on their own. With my first two films, The Last Dog in Rwanda and Killing the Chickens to Scare the Monkeys, I encountered an international festival audience. I was often told that my films had inspired lengthy discussions that rarely ended in a consensus on what they were about. And that is exactly how I want it to be. Film is art to me, about creating a meeting between the film and the audience. That is the very essence of cinema. The film and the audience.

DIRECTOR JENS ASSUR

ACTOR BIOGRAPHIES

AGNE Reine Brynolfsson is one of Sweden’s most respected and skilled actors. He is well known to Swedish audiences for both Blockbuster motion pictures like Änglagård, Sista dansen and Sprängaren, and in the theatre, in award-winning produc- tions at The . Brynolfsson has worked with many great directors including: Bo Widerberg in Ormens väg på hälleberget, Harry Martinson in Moa, with Hrafn Gunnlaugsson in the Icelandic drama Korpens skugga, Bille August in Jerusalem (where he was nominated for the Guldbagge Award for Best Supporting Actor), Les Misérables, and in As White as in Snow.

GÄRD Maria Heiskanen is one of Finland’s most talented and beloved actresses. Heiskanen received her breakthrough role in the 1991 Swedish film Il Capitano: A Swedish Requiem directed by Jan Troell, for which she won the Gold Plaque Award at Chicago International Film Festival for Best Actress. Heiskanen lived in Sweden during 1993 - 2003 and worked in both film and theatre. She played at the Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern and in the Riksteatern where she performed the role of Masja in Anton Chekov’s The Seagull (2008) directed by Lars Norén. In Finland, Heiskanen worked with notable filmmakers such as Aki Kaurismäki in Lights In The Dusk and starred in Aleksi Salmenperä's A Man's Work . She was nominated for Jussi Awards for both performances. In 2008, Heiskanen starred in the leading role of Jan Troell's , for which she won the Guldbagge Award for Best Actress and the Best Actress Award from Valladolid International Film Festival. WRITER / DIRECTOR JENS ASSUR Jens Assur is a world-renowned photographer and filmmaker, who’s multiple award-winning shorts have been awarded and acclaimed in Cannes, Tribeca, Clermont-Ferrand and Busan Film Festivals. In 2012, Assur was given the Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award for his movies and for his feature script Close Far Away. His debut short film, The Last Dog in Rwanda, based on personal experiences as a war photographer, won numerous awards including Best Film at Tribeca Film Festival. His second short, Killing the Chickens to Scare the Monkeys, premiered at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in Cannes and has received over 20 presti- gious awards and nominations at key festivals. Assur’s subsequent short films A Society and Hot Nasty Teen were both official selections at Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival. RAVENS is his first feature film. Between 2010 and 2014, Assur also produced two contemporary solo photo exhibitions: Africa is a Great Country and Hunger. Both exhibitions have opened at major art institutions, nationally as well as internationally. THE PRODUCERS FILM AND ART AFFAIRS is a Swedish production company focusing on feature film and art photography. The company is a colla- boration between the production company Studio Jens Assur and Co_Made Sthlm. Studio Jens Assur has, during the last ten years, produced four critically acclaimed short films and a number of large international art photo exhibitions. The company is founded and run by the producers Jens Assur and Tom Persson. RIGHT2SCREEN is a film and television drama development and production company focused on Scandinavian stories with an inter- national flavor. The company is founded and run by the producers Jan Marnell and Lars Weiss. Jan Marnell is an internationally experienced producer of feature films, tele-movies, mini-series, one hour a week drama series & daily serials (Australia, Scandinavia, Morocco, Jordan, Spain). Lars Weiss has international management experience and is former Head of TV4 Sweden, Chairman of Yellowbird Films, and formerly on the board of Zodiak Television and the Swedish Film Institute.