Issue 1 • 2017 SHOOTING STAR Karin Franz Körlof + The Nile Hilton Incident, A Hustler’s Diary, Up in the Sky and much more A magazine from the Swedish Film Institute • sfi.se 25 years Welcome 1 000 co-productions Head of International Pia Lundberg Film i Väst 1992–2017 www.fi lmivast.com Phone: +46 70 692 79 80 [email protected] Festivals, features Petter Mattsson Phone +46 70 607 11 34 Film i Väst congratulates [email protected] its co-productions in Berlin! Festivals, documentaries Sara Rüster A fresh start Phone: +46 76 117 26 78 [email protected] Panta rhei. All things are in flux. They A Hustler’s Diary, a dramedy where a certainly are, and Sweden and the Swedish suburban small-time criminal clashes film industry is no exception. At the time with his past and the very elite of Stock- Festivals, shorts Theo Tsappos of writing we are only weeks into a new holm’s cultural life. We have Sami Blood Phone: +46 76 779 11 33 national film policy. We see it as a chance in Berlin and the TV series Midnight Sun [email protected] to go through the old film funding that’s in Rotterdam – and they both, in com- been around for decades, modernize it – pletely different ways, tell a story about and start afresh. We’re going cherry-pick- the Sami minority. Those are just a few Special projects ing, taking what’s worked for us and other examples of Swedish films that are Josefina Mothander countries before, and putting the pieces selected for various festivals in the first Phone +46 70 972 93 52 together to build something new. An months of 2017. [email protected] important part of the process is daring to We already have a broad spectrum of see what it takes to set the funded films up films coming from Sweden, and we will OFFICIAL COMPETITION GENERATION KPLUS Coordinator with the best possible conditions to grow continue to work along those lines. These Ömer Bulduk GAME COUNT Agnieszka Holland UP IN THE SKY Petter Lennstrand and develop. To help us we have new film are exciting times, and time will tell what Phone +46 76 501 20 71 commissioners when it comes not only to we make of them and this opportunity for [email protected] features, but to shorts and documentaries change. Be sure to come by our stand in as well. Read more about them on page 34. Berlin, and ask us any questions you may Together with them we’re on a venture to have about the changes. Above all: see Head of Communications find quality, and not only within the given our films, now and in the coming years. & Public Relations frameworks. You won’t be disappointed. Rebecka Ioannidis Lindberg Phone: +46 76 501 20 73 While looking ahead, we are also reap- [email protected] ing the rewards of our work to put gender on the agenda. Now it seems like other Press Officer efforts when it comes to diversity have Jan Göransson started paying off too: in 2017 there are a Phone: +46 70 603 03 62 lot of new faces in Swedish film – both on [email protected] and off screen – who bring new perspec- tives and new kinds of stories. In Berlin we have two shorts with an LGBTQ theme, My Gay Sister and The Comet, the latter being about a young refugee who PANORAMA SPECIAL OFFICIAL SELECTION (Out of Competition) Swedish Film Institute undertakes a hellish voyage to Sweden to KING’S CHOICE Erik Poppe VICEROY’S HOUSE Gurinder Chadha International Department escape persecution of homosexuals in his Anna Serner P.O. Box 27126 home country. In Rotterdam we have CEO, Swedish Film Institute SE-102 52 Stockholm, Sweden Phone: +46 8 665 11 00 Fax: +46 8 661 18 20 sfi.se www.twitter.com/swedishfilm www.instagram.com/swedishfilm Your Scandinavian Partner in Co-Productions Issued by Swedish Film Institute Publisher Pia Lundberg Editors Jon Asp, Bo Madestrand Since 1992 Film i Väst has co-produced more than 1 000 feature films, TV-dramas, shorts & Art Director Markus Edin Contributing Editors Emma Gray Munthe, Josefina Mothander Contributors Jenny Damberg, The Swedish Film Institute works to promote film across the Camilla Larsson, Jan Lumholdt, Sebastian Lindvall, Per Nyström, Sia Pournouri, Niklas Wahllöf board – from idea to finished product, during launch in Sweden documentaries. Film i Väst is one of Europe’s leading regional film funds, located on the Swedish Photography Karin Alfredsson, Emelie Asplund, Johan Bergmark, Nadja Hallström, Ylva Sundgren and around the world, and by preserving films for posterity in our archives. Cover photo Emelie Asplund Translation Matt Bibby west coast in Västra Götaland. Film Väst is active as co-producer and investor in international ISSN 1654-0050 Print Norra Skåne Offset Advertising Fredrik Johnsson [email protected] and Swedish film and TV-Drama. www.filmivast.com 3 Annons Swedish FIlm 2017.indd 1 2017-01-23 13:29:01 ContentContentsNews News 20 BERLIN ANDREAS BAADERANDREAS 30 On the run Victor Lindgren’s new film The Comet (Kometen) has been selected for Berlinale Shorts. It is a film about fleeing one’s homeland, across the Mediterranean to a cold, closed Europe. Victor My Gay Sister Lindgren’s screenplay for The 16 STENWALL KARIN Comet is based on a short story by Melker Garay and on the life story BERLIN of actor Abdi Aziis. “Abdi inspired me to write this story, as he made a similar hellish Sisterly love trip from Somalia to Sweden, due to his sexual orientation,” says Lia Hietala’s My Gay Sister (Min Thyberg’s Girls and Boys (2015) Lindgren. “My hope is that this film homosyster) world premieres in and Stallion (Hingsten, 2016). might illustrate his situation and Berlinale’s Generation Kplus “I primarily work with themes highlight the refugee issue, section. The film focuses on that portray people with LGBTQ especially LGBTQ refugees who three girls: Majken who has long experiences whitout turning it into are often marginalized.” known she is a lesbian, Gabbi a problem. In this film I wanted to Victor Lindgren is also working who has just discovered she also touch on the conception that on his debut feature, with the likes girls – and Gabbi’s ten-year- many people assume that working title The Unpromised Land (Till drömmarnas land), which has old little sister Cleo who is trying children are heterosexual, at least NEW STORIED AB 13 23 HALLSTRÖM NADJA BERGMARK, JOHAN BERGMARK, JOHAN ASPLUND, EMELIE SUNDGREN, YLVA ALFREDSSON, KARIN LEFT: TOP FROM CLOCKWISE to figure out how she feels. until they state the opposite.” been shot and is ready for editing. “The film is about a young girl’s Lia Hietala’s first short If I Say “To give a taste of the feature 5 News 20 The24 escape from Cairo 34 The influencers first encounter with defining her No (2016) formed the basis for “The film is about a film, we made a short called Meet A jazzy short for kids is one of the Swedish entries at In The Nile Hilton Incident, Tarik Saleh uncovers the dirty As new film commissioners at the Swedish Film Institute, sexuality. About how hard it can My Gay Sister. Hietala is young girl’s first Me in Holmsund (Den blomstertid Clermont-Ferrand, a documentary about the Swedish Film business of politics in Egypt. Erika Wassermann, Calle Marthin and Juan Pablo be to sort out what you feel, and currently casting Ninja Thyberg’s nu kommer, 2016), which is Institute’s founder Harry Schein premieres in Gothenburg Libossart are sure to leave a mark on the national film how scary it can be to realize that debut feature Jessica, about a encounter with screening at several festivals and we strap on a deer mask to experience Peter 23 New talent scene. you feel,” says Lia Hietala. teenage girl who ventures into during the spring. It’s about Sabina Pontiki’s 360-degree short. Plus all the winners from the Film student Jonatan Etzler examines the perils of big defining her sexuality” who has come from Romania to recent Guldbagge Awards. 36 Loving Lorna Hietala started out as the porn movie industry. dreams in the short Make a Wish. Actress Evin Ahmad Sweden with her Romany brothers, shines in emotional everyday drama Beyond Dreams. Sisters Annika and Jessica Karlsson went to Ireland to assistant director on Ninja Jon Asp Lia Hietala about migrant workers and her 13 What’s next shoot their documentary debut about the local Ballymun The Sami Blood cinematographer Sophia Olsson, a 27 Kids in space horse culture. meeting with all things Swedish.” household name in Scandinavia, is shooting Milad Alami’s In Petter Lennstrand’s animated puppet film Up in the In 2013 Victor Lindgren’s debut feature. Björn Runge makes a comeback to the Sky, an eight-year-old sets out on the adventure of her 38 New films Undress Me (Ta av mig) won a silver screen with the help of Glenn Close, Jonathan life. All the latest Swedish films… Swedes with Oscar feeling Teddy Award for best short at the Pryce and Christian Slater. Director Mia Engberg Hannes Holm’s A Man Called film in history domestically and Furthermore, Linus Sandgren Berlinale. returns with the second film in a planned trilogy about a 28 Cultural nomads 48 New shorts Ove, about a grumpy old man is also a big hit in the US. Love was nominated for Cinematog- Jon Asp Paris gangster.