New Docs. Fall 2019/ Winter 2020 Always Amber • Among the Birds • Bitter Love • Charismatic Megafauna • Children of the Enemy • The Feminister Fly so Far • For Somebody Else • The Game • Greta • The Heart is a Drum • Idomeni • Josefin & Florin • Jozi Gold A Legacy of Horses • Lena • Maddy the Model • Mating • Meanwhile on Earth • Merry Christmas, Yiwu Ninosca – the Woman and the Emigrant’s Song. A voyage over 40 years • PUSH • Reconstructing Utøya • Ridge Scheme Birds • Tiny Tim – King for a Day • Transnistra • With Love • The Writer – Joyce Carol Oates • Yung Lean X (X) • DIRECTEDWelcome BY to the world of PHOTO Swedish docs! 2 SWEDISH FILM • NEW DOCS 2019 has been a very successful year for has been travelling the world since then and Swedish documentaries. Transnistra by Anna scored awards. Eborn started off with both winning the Big We will start 2020 with a Swedish Focus at Screen Award in Rotterdam and the Dragon FIPADOC and a lot of new interesting titles Award for Best Nordic Documentary at like; Greta by Nathan Grossman, about the Göteborg Film Festival. For the second year in world-famous activist, Stig Björkman’s film a row a Swedish film won the Dox:Award at about the writer Joyce Carol Oates and Always CPH:DOX, Ridge by John Skoog. Scheme Amber by Lia Hietala and Hannah Reinikainen, Birds by Ellen Fiske and Ellinor Hallin had its a film that will give us a unique insight into a World premiere at Tribeca Film Festival where new generation. Just read the catalogue you it was awarded Best Documentary. Fredrik hold in your hands and enjoy the diversity of Gertten’s PUSH premiered at CPH:DOX and stories from our talented Swedish filmmakers. Swedish Film Institute Publisher Steffen Andersen-Møller Contacts for docs and shorts International Department ISSN 1654-0050 Sara Rüster, [email protected] P.O Box 27 126 Jing Haase, [email protected] SE - 102 52 Stockholm, Sweden Art Director Markus Edin Josefina Mothander, Phone +46 8 665 11 00 Cover photo Always Amber, Lia Hietala [email protected] Fax +46 8 661 18 20 Print Lenanders Grafiska, Kalmar sfi.se Twitter.com/swedishfilm Instagram.com/swedishfilm Always Amber (ALLTID AMBER) DIRECTED BY LIA HIETALA, HANNAH REINIKAINEN FEATURE DEBUT Amber is a 17-year-old teen. Together with best friend Sebastian, they share a world far away from the judging eyes of the society as two queer youngsters. But when Sebastian falls in love with Amber’s girlfriend everything starts to fall apart. A story about trust issues starts to reveal itself and in the midst of it all Amber has to face going through their transition alone. In Always Amber we get a unique insight into a new generation. ©LIA HIETALA Screenwriters Lia Hietala, Hannah Reinikainen Lia Hietala (born in 1993) started out as director’s assistant to Swedish Produced by Story/Göran Hugo Olsson, Melissa Lindgren, with support director Ninja Thyberg in 2014. She has since then studied documentary from the Swedish Film Institute/Juan Pablo Libossart filmmaking at Ölands Folkhögskola and directed two fictional short films; If I Say Duration approx. 75 min No (2016) and My Gay Sister (2017). My Gay Sister became a big international National release TBA success and won the prestigious TEDDY Award at Berlinale, the world’s biggest Sales TBA queer film award. Hannah Reinikainen (born in 1992) has been studying journalism at the University of Stockholm and documentary filmmaking at Biskops Arnö. She has also been working as an editor and directed two short films; Nybohovsbacken (2016) and She Only Beat the One She Loves (2017). Always Amber is their feature debut. 4 SWEDISH FILM • NEW DOCS Among the Birds Short (BLAND FÅGLAR MÅNG) DIRECTED BY DAVID GÜLICH Our world spins and spins in its gigantic cycle. Vibrates. Constant progress. Over the past hundred years, humanity has faced enormous changes. Inventions have changed man’s living conditions forever. Can we, with the aid of a longer perspective, gain greater understanding of each other? ©SUMSASE ©SUMSASE Screenwriter David Gülich David Gülich is a composer and sound designer who for the past 13 Produced by Sumsase/David Gülich, with support from the Swedish Film years has worked with music and sound for numerous films, plays, public audio Institute/Patrik Axén installations and more. He has, among other things, made sound design for Duration 15 min Athena Farrokhzad’s White and Letter to a Warrior and several award-winning National release January 2019 films by John Skoog. Sales TBA SWEDISH FILM • NEW DOCS 5 Bitter Love (BITTER LOVE) DIRECTED BY JERZY SLADKOWSKI A lovesick misfit, a mysterious beauty, a retired civil servant, a randy fortuneteller and a doubtful young couple meet in late summer on a Russian river cruise on Volga. What does fate have in store for them? ©GINESTRA FILM Screenwriter Jerzy Sladkowski Jerzy Sladkowski was born in Poland in 1945. He immigrated to Sweden Produced by Ginestra Film/Antonio Russo Merenda, with support from the in 1983. Since then he has worked as a freelance director and producer making Swedish Film Institute/Klara Grunning over fifty documentaries. Recipient of several prestigious prizes including the Duration 86 min European Film Award for Vendetta (1996), the IDA Award for Swedish Tango National release TBA (1999), the Golden Dove for Vodka Factory (2011) and the VPRO IDFA Award for Sales TBA Don Juan (2016). 6 SWEDISH FILM • NEW DOCS Charismatic Megafauna (CHARISMATIC MEGAFAUNA) DIRECTED BY FREDRIK WENZEL, JESPER KURLANDSKY Charismatic Megafauna is a globe spanning odyssey, steeped in the tempo of the contemplative traditions. Through the eye of the free-floating witness, we observe life at work and leisure, in play and through hardships, from the shanty towns of Cape Town, to the Waura Tribe by the Xangu river, through the mist of the Atlas Mountains to the coloured night skies of Beijing. ©FASAD Screenwriters Fredrik Wenzel, Jesper Kurlandsky Fredrik Wenzel (born in 1978) is the co-director of Burrowing (2010) and Produced by Fasad/Erik Gandini, Jesper Kurlandsky, Malin Hüber, with support the cinematographer on Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure (2014) as well as his from the Swedish Film Institute/Magdalena Jangard Palme d’Or winner The Square (2017). Fredrik also directed As We’re Told (2017) Duration 70 min winner of IDFA Special Jury Award. National Release TBA (born in 1977) produced the award-winning Avalon Sales Cinetic/Wide House Jesper Kurlandsky (2012), directed by Axel Petersén as well as Jesper Ganslandt’s Jimmie (2018). SWEDISH FILM • NEW DOCS 7 Children of the Enemy (CHILDREN OF THE ENEMY) DIRECTED BY GORKI GLASER-MÜLLER SECOND FEATURE In 2014 Patricio Galvez’s daughter Amanda and her husband Michael Skråmo left Sweden to join ISIS in Syria. Michael became a high profile warrior, recruiting through social media. In the beginning of 2019 Amanda and Michael were killed and left behind seven small children. Deep in sorrow over his daughter’s death, Patricio makes a pledge to save this grandchildren, even if it can cost him his life. The children are placed in the detention camp al-Hol, where conditions are life-threatening. The Swedish government refuses to make any decisions about the children, and the clock is ticking. ©CINENIC FILM ©CINENIC Screenwriter Gorki Glaser-Müller Gorki Glaser-Müller is a filmmaker, writer for film, tv and radio and a Produced by Cinenic Film/Kristofer Henell, Erika Malmgren, with multi artist working with experimental formats such as VR. Gorki was born in support from the Swedish Film Institute/Klara Grunning Santiago, Chile in 1973 and came to Sweden as a 13-year-old. Since graduating Duration approx. 90 min from Valand Academy in Gothenburg, he has experimented with audiovisual National release TBA storytelling in various forms. His first feature film was the critically acclaimed Once a Sales TBA Year (2013). 8 SWEDISH FILM • NEW DOCS The Feminister (UTRIKESMINISTERN) DIRECTED BY VIKTOR NORDENSKIÖLD SECOND FEATURE Incredible coverage of four years in the office of the Swedish foreign minister, Margot Wallström, known for her fearless feminist agenda and sharp, empathic mind. We witness her arduous negotiations with Saudi Arabia, Israel and North Korea, as well as a highly competitive campaign for a seat in the UNSC, followed by a crash course in keeping it cool in the face of death threats and intimidation. ©VIKTOR NORDENSKIÖLD/FREETOWNFILMS ©VIKTOR Screenwriter Viktor Nordenskiöld Viktor Nordenskiöld (born in 1969) is an award-winning Swedish Produced by Freetownfilms/Viktor Nordenskiöld, Malcolm Dixelius director, producer and journalist. He has a Master of Arts from Stockholm University Duration 86 min of the Arts. His short Out of This World (2014) premiered at Berlinale Generation. National release December 21, 2018 The Feminister (2019), co-produced with pubcaster SVT/Charlotte Hellström, Sales Autlook Filmsales premiered at CPH:DOX. SWEDISH FILM • NEW DOCS 9 Fly so Far (VOLAR LEJOS) DIRECTED BY CELINA ESCHER FEATURE DEBUT Fly so Far follows Teodora Vásquez and The Seven- teen, the women accused of aggravated homicide in El Salvador for having had a miscarriage. The film is conducted by the story of Teodora, the spokesperson of the group, who after being imprisoned for eleven years was released in 2018 and became an activist for women’s rights. Her case has become the symbol of the extremism in the criminalization of abortion and the cruelty against women within the Salvadoran system, but also of empowerment, resilience and solidarity. ©AUDUN FJELDHEIM ©AUDUN Screenwriter Celina Escher Celina Escher is a Swiss-Salvadoran filmmaker. She studied documentary Produced by Pråmfilm/Mónica Hernández Rejón, Sugar Rush film at the International Film School in San Antonio de los Baños (EICTV) in Cuba. In Productions/Maria Åkesson, with support of the Swedish Film 2016 her short film Motriz was part of the student selection at IDFA and at Poitiers Institute/Juan Pablo Libossart Film Festival 2017.