Issue 2 • 2017 Ravens Jens Assur’s feature debut is set deep in rural Sweden ALSO IN CANNES Borg/McEnroe Push It by Julia Thelin and Sverrir Gudnason faces Shia LaBeouf The Burden by in Janus Metz’s feature about Niki Lindroth the greatest tennis match ever played von Bahr RuThe masterb of discomforten hits Cannes r withu The lesSquare A magazine from the Swedish Film Institute • sfi.se DiscoverDiscover thethe talentstalents ofof ScandinaviaScandinavia ExploreExplore ourour selectionselection ofof 400400 filmsfilms fromfrom 8080 countries.countries. WatchWatch thethe NordicNordic filmsfilms competingcompeting forfor thethe world’sworld’s largestlargest cashcash prize.prize. VisitVisit thethe leadingleading marketplacemarketplace forfor NordicNordic filmfilm andand TVTV drama.drama. 4141stst GöteborgGöteborg FilmFilm FestivalFestival JanuaryJanuary 2626 -- FebruaryFebruary 5,5, 20182018 TVTV DramaDrama Vision,Vision, JanuaryJanuary 3131 -- FebruaryFebruary 1,1, 20182018 NordicNordic FilmFilm Market,Market, FebruaryFebruary 11 -- 4,4, 20182018 Nostradamus,Nostradamus, FebruaryFebruary 1,1, 20182018 LeadLead SponsorSponsor andand PresentingPresenting PartnerPartner DragonDragon AwardAward BestBest NordicNordic FilmFilm 2 3 Welcome Film i Väst congratulates Head of International Pia Lundberg its Co-Productions in Cannes! Phone: +46 70 692 79 80 [email protected] IN COMPETITION: THE SQUARE Ruben Östlund Festivals, features Ruben returns Petter Mattsson Phone +46 70 607 11 34 That a small nation like Sweden has a film Beauty and the Dogs is a Swedish co- [email protected] competing for a Palme d’Or in Cannes is production with Tunisia and France and quite a feat in itself. But to have two films will screen in Un Certain Regard. Kaoth- doing just that, like Sweden has this year, er is one of many female directors getting Festivals, documentaries is just unbelievably fantastic. support from Sweden in international co- Sara Rüster Ruben Östlund is back after three years. productions and I think it’s thanks to our Phone: +46 76 117 26 78 Last time, Force Majeure participated in work in the field of gender equality that [email protected] Un Certain Regard. This time, The Square we get these projects off the ground. Just competes for the Palme d’Or. Ruben is a like our own Swedish female directors headstrong person with a highly individu- these filmmakers make topical, innova- Festivals, shorts and features Theo Tsappos al voice, a fitting combination when aim- tive and interesting cinema. Phone: +46 76 779 11 33 ing to become one of the very few chosen Those wanting to know more about [email protected] ones. We all know the importance, both our equality work and what it actually for the filmmaker and the represented can amount to is warmly welcome to our country, of “getting there” – it takes deter- seminar “50/50 by 2020 – Global Reach” Special projects mination and talent. It also, unquestion- in Cannes. We will talk to directors Josefina Mothander ably, demands a breadth as far as national Agnieszka Holland (whose 2017 Phone +46 70 972 93 52 production. Our other competing director, Berlinale -awarded Spoor is yet another [email protected] Julia Thelin, participates in the official Swedish co-production) and Jessica short film competition withPush It. Julia Hausner about filmmaking, quality and Coordinator has already been granted production fund- gate keepers. Additionally, representa- Ömer Bulduk ing for yet another short subject; we await tives from Norway, Canada and Ireland Phone +46 76 501 20 71 her forthcoming artistic development with will present ways in which they work for [email protected] great anticipation. equality in the film industry. Hope to see UN CERTAIN REGARD: DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT: Apart from these main competition you around, amidst the madding crowd. BEAUTY AND THE DOGS Kaouther Ben Hania A CIAMBRA Jonas Carpignano entries, Sweden has yet another short film, Head of Communications The Burden, in this year’s Directors’ Fort- & Public Relations night. Director Niki Lindroth von Bahr is Rebecka Ioannidis Lindberg Phone: +46 76 501 20 73 a respected and highly interesting anima- [email protected] tor, and many of us have been looking for- ward to her new film following the suc- Press Officer cesses of Tord and Tord (2010) and Bath Jan Göransson House (2014), both presented in the com- Phone: +46 70 603 03 62 petition sections at both Annecy and Sun- [email protected] dance. Animation is time-consuming and costly; it demands a sizeable apparatus in order to deliver. Niki, too, presents an artistic will of steel when accomplishing DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT SHORT FILMS: Your Scandinavian Partner yet another high-class animation project in Swedish Film Institute THE BURDEN Niki Lindroth von Bahr in Co-Productions little Sweden. International Department And there’s even more in this year’s Anna Serner P.O. Box 27126 Since 1992 Film i Väst has co-produced more than official programme. Kaother Ben Hania’s CEO, Swedish Film Institute SE-102 52 Stockholm, Sweden 1 000 feature films, TV-dramas, shorts & documentaries. Phone: +46 8 665 11 00 Fax: +46 8 661 18 20 sfi.se Film i Väst is one of Europe’s leading regional film funds, www.twitter.com/swedishfilm located on the Swedish west coast www.instagram.com/swedishfilm in Västra Götaland. Film Väst is Issued by Swedish Film Institute Publisher Pia Lundberg Editors Jon Asp, Bo Madestrand active as co-producer and investor Art Director Markus Edin Contributing Editors Emma Gray Munthe, Josefina MothanderContributors Jenny Damberg, The Swedish Film Institute works to promote film across the Marit Kapla, Camilla Larsson, Sebastian Lindvall, Jan Lumholdt, Per Nyström, Niklas Wahllöf board – from idea to finished product, during launch in Sweden in international and Swedish film Photography Karin Alfredsson, Emelie Asplund, Johan Bergmark, Frans Hällqvist, Sara Mac Key, and around the world, and by preserving films for posterity in our archives. Leif-Erik Nygårds, Ylva Sundgren Cover photo Frans Hällqvist Translation Jan Lumholdt and TV-drama. ISSN 1654-0050 Print Lenanders GrafiskaAdvertising Fredrik Johnsson [email protected] www.filmivast.com 5 Annons Swedish FIlm Cannes 2017.indd 1 2017-05-02 11:32:00 ContentContentsNews CANNES News Fight the power 18 There’s a good tradition of Swedish short films in Cannes. After two entries in 2016, yet another Swedish short competes for this year’s Palme d’Or. Among close to 5 000 hopefuls Julia Thelin’s Push It has ended up among the nine in the final line-up. The film takes place during a high school physical education 26 class. Here, we get to witness a showdown between Hedda and Adam, the class favourite. Despite putting all her strength and ingenuity into action, Hedda soon realises that it’s not easy to tamper with hierarchies and fixed social group structures. 34 “It deals with physical rage and frustration. It’s important to be able to let your emotions loose without inhibition, when you’re young,” says 25-year-old director Julia Thelin. “As a young girl you’re told to hold your own and I’ve often thought about what happens after you’ve got there and then get challenged. Either it’s yourself or others who will do the challenging, which will make things very contradictory.” What inspires your filmmaking? “Femininity and how it deals 30 8 JULIE VRABELOVA ALFREDSSON, KARIN SUNDGREN, YLVA SUNDGREN, YLVA HÄLLQVIST, FRANS BERGMARK, JOHAN LEFT: TOP FROM CLOCKWISE with the world around us. Human bodies and narrative structures. 24 Emotions. And literature – to read is to see the universe open up.” What’s your first association 7. News 20. In the summertime 30. Game, set, match when you hear the word Swedish shorts continue to make waves as Julia Thelin’s Göran Hugo Olsson continues to make use of existing Screenwriter Ronnie Sandahl and director Janus Cannes? Push It and Niki Lindroth von Bahr’s The Burden have material in That Summer, a remix of original documentary Metz recreate ”the best tennis match ever played” at been selected for Cannes. Two Swedish minors are also footage that was shot by ”photographer, artist, playboy” Wimbledon 1980 between Björn Borg and hot-tem- “Lars von Trier scandals plus playing at the French riviera festival: Jonas Carpigna- Peter Beard in the early 70’s. Featuring appearances by pered John McEnroe. Starring Sverrir Gudnason, movie stars. My grandmother said no’s A Ciambra and Kaouther Ben Hania’s Beauty and celebrities such as Andy Warhol, Bianca Jagger and Shia LaBeouf and Stellan Skarsgård. ’posh’ when she heard I was the Dogs. Rojda Sekersöz and Katja Wik have made ”The Edies” of Grey Gardens fame. going. It’s a bit true, there are dress their first features. 34. Reverse perspective codes and expenses to tend to. 23. New talents Jesper Ganslandt turns the camera on himself and his 14. A square deal With a little luck there’ll be some Debutants Sophie Vuković and Olof Spaak draw on four-year-old son in Jimmie, an equally personal and good mingling. I’m quite at my Ruben Östlund competes in Cannes with The Square, a their own background, in immigration documentary well-researched story about today’s refugee crisis. forte at festivals.” satirical exploration of social mechanisms and rituals set Shapeshifters and addiction drama Garden Lane Text Jon Asp in the hierarchical international art world. respectively. Maria Eriksson shows her way with kids in 36. New films poetic short Schoolyard Blues, selected for Karlovy Vary. Everything you need to know about 37 feature-length Photo Johan Bergmark 18. Bird watching Swedish films… Jens Assur goes deep into the Swedish countryside in 28. Surreal estate his adaptation of the novel The Ravens – which is also his Måns Månsson and Axel Petersén blur the lines 49. New shorts feature debut after a string of successful shorts.