Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander in The Girl Who Played with Fire, the second film in the acclaimed Millennium trilogy. Photo: Nordisk Film
Directors Ola Simonsson and Johannes Stjärne Nilsson debuted in 2010 with their thriller/musical comedy Sound of Noise. This unusual film won two prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, the Young Critics Award and the Golden Rail Award.
Josef Fares is one of the hottest and most versatile artists in Swedish cinema. His most recent release, Balls (Farsan, 2010), is a comedy about love, friendship and the art of being a man. Fares made his breakthrough in 2000 with Jalla! Jalla!, a comedy about love bridging the cultural divide. The police farce Kopps followed in 2003, and in his semiautobiographical Zozo (2005) an orphan finds refuge from the Lebanese civil war in Sweden. In 2007 Fares made Leo, a drama about street violence and its aftermath.
Johan Brisinger’s debut film, Suddenly (Underbara älskade, 2006), received rave reviews from Swedish critics. His most recent film, Among Us (Änglavakt, 2010), is a melancholy drama depicting how life can be turned upside down in an instant.
Ulf Malmros wrote and directed the tragicomedy The Wedding Photographer (Bröllopsfotografen, 2009), for which he won an award for best screenplay at the 2010 Guldbagge Awards. Prior to that, Malmros had major hits with his films Slim Susie (Smala Sussie, 2003) and God Save the King (Tjenare Kungen, 2005).
Ruben Östlund’s Incident by a Bank (Händelse vid bank) won the Goldene Bäre (Golden Bear) for Best Short Film at the Berlin Film Festival in 2010. The short film is a reconstruction of an attemptedrobbery witnessed by Östlund in downtown Stockholm in June 2006. Östlund is also known for his film Involuntary (De ofrivilliga, 2008), a tragicomedy about group pressure.
Tarik Saleh’s animated film Metropia (2009) is a dark vision of the future that takes place in a terrifying Europe in 2024. Saleh earlier directed the films Gitmo (2006) and Sacrificio (2001) together with Erik Gandini. However, Metropia was his first animated feature film.
Director, screenwriter and sound engineer Babak Najafi’s Sebbe (2010) is the story of the isolated 15-year-old Sebbe and his mother. The movie won Best First Feature Award at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival. Najafi’s movies Elixir (2004), Skolan (The school, 2003), Gösta & Lennart (2001) and Pablo’s Birthday (Pablos födelsedag, 2001) have also won critical acclaim.
Famous Swedes in Hollywood
Sweden has many talented actors and directors who have been involved in everything from small Swedish films to major Hollywood productions.
Stellan Skarsgård made his breakthrough as an actor as early as 1968 in the Swedish television series Bombi Bitt and Me (Bombi Bitt och jag). Since then, he has played a number of acclaimed roles. Internationally, the Swedish actor captivated many viewers with his performance in Lars von Trier’s film Breaking the Waves (1996). Following this, Skarsgård appeared in major films like Good Will Hunting (1997), King Arthur (2004), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006), Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007), Mamma Mia! (2008) and Angels & Demons (2009).
Alexander Skarsgård, the son of Stellan Skarsgård, has followed in his father’s footsteps and is pursuing a career as an actor. He took part in his first film production, Åke och hans värld (Åke and His World, 1984), when he was only eight years old. He made the move to Hollywood when he took on the role of Ben Stiller’s thick-headed buddy Meekus in the hit film Zoolander (2001). Many will recognize him more recently as the vampire Viking Eric Northman in the television series True Blood.
Alexander Skarsgård as the vampire Eric Northman in True Blood.
Photo: HBO
Izabella Scorupco scored a success in 1995 when she portrayed the Russian computer expert Natalya Simonova in the James Bond film Golden Eye with Pierce Brosnan. Following that, she took part in blockbusters like Vertical Limit (2000) and Exorcist: The Beginning (2004). Most recently, she acted in the Swedish drama Among Us (Änglavakt, 2010).
Peter Stormare broke through the international market as a villain in the Coen brothers’ film Fargo (1996) and has performed in many major film productions since. Many may remember him as the scatter-brained Russian cosmonaut Lev Andropov in the hit film Armageddon (1998) or as the hunter Dieter Stark in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997). He has also appeared in films like Bad Company (2002), Minority Report (2002) and Constantine (2005). Most recently, he played the president of the universe in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009).
Lasse Hallström debuted as a director with the Swedish TV film Pop – en jättegrej mellan öronen (Pop — A big thing between the ears, 1968). Since then, a great deal has happened. In 1993, he directed the acclaimed film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, with Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio in the leads. In 1995, he made Something To Talk About with Julia Roberts and Dennis Quaid. Following this, Hallström directed blockbusters like Chocolat (2000), The Shipping News (2001), An Unfinished Life (2005) and Casanova (2005). In 2010 he directed Dear John with Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried in the leads.
Swedish film financing
Swedish film policy aims to support the production, promotion and distribution of worthwhile films, to preserve and promote Sweden’s film heritage and to make sure that Swedish films are represented internationally.
Other tasks include supporting regional and local film culture and improving the conditions under which women filmmakers operate. Film policy funding and other support measures are allocated and administered by the Swedish Film Institute, which was founded in 1963.
Under the Swedish Film Agreement, which came into force on January 1, 2006, Swedish cinema receives funding from the government, the cinema industry and television companies. In 2009, contributions totaled roughly sek 386 million (about eur 41 million/usd 54 million). The agreement runs until December 31, 2010.
Gifted documentary makers
Sweden continues to produce award-winning shorts and documentaries.
Frida Kempff and Camilla Skagerström’s film Bathing Micky (Micky badar, 2010) was awarded the Special Prize of the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival, which is the second most prestigious prize after the Palme d’Or. The film is about Micky, who is turning 100 and loves to swim in the sea. This beautiful story gives perspective to life and our existence.
The beautiful, prize-winning short film Bathing Micky.
Photo: Medima Film/C. Skagerström
Patrik Eklund’s Seeds of the Fall (Slitage, 2009) won the Canal+ Award for best short film at Cannes in 2009 and won a Special Jury Mention at the Nordisk Panorama – 5 Cities Film Festival in Reykjavik. Eklund also made the short Instead of Abracadabra (Istället för Abrakadabra, 2008), for which he received an Academy Award nomination.
Gunilla Heilborn and Mårten Nilsson’s acclaimed mock documentary This is Alaska (2009) revolves around a group of people who move to Alaska to find a higher level of freedom. The film won the prize for Best Swedish Short at the Uppsala International Short Film Festival. It also attracted attention and was shown at the film festivals in Rotterdam and Clermont-Ferrand.
In his film Videocracy (2009), Erik Gandini, who was born and grew up in Italy, depicts the world of Italian television, which is almost totally controlled by the country’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. The documentary attracted considerable attention and received glowing reviews. Gandini is known for his gripping documentaries Gitmo (2006, co-directed with Tarik Saleh) and Surplus (2003).
Nahid Persson Sarvestani’s film The Queen and I (Drottningen och jag, 2009) is a portrait of the former Queen of Iran Farah Diba Pahlavi. Persson Sarvestani was herself born and raised in Iran and took part in the revolution that overthrew the monarchy in Iran thirty years ago.
Regional filmmaking is booming
Regional filmmaking has been booming for the past decade, with more Swedish films being set outside Stockholm than ever before.
Trollywood
The regional production center Film i Väst in southwest Sweden is better known as Trollywood (for Trollhättan, the town where it is based). Balls (2010), Glowing Stars (I taket lyser stjärnorna, 2009), Mammoth and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo were all filmed there. Lars von Trier’s blockbuster Antichrist was also filmed in Trollywood in 2009.
Film i Skåne
The regional resource and production center Film i Skåne promotes film operations in the county of Skåne in southern Sweden. The company has co-produced, among others, Pernilla August’s feature film directorial debut, Beyond (Svinalängorna, 2010), and Othman Karim’s feature film Dear Alice (För kärleken, 2010), with Danny Glover in one of the leads.
Filmpool Nord
A growing number of films have been either wholly or partly produced in the north of Sweden, among them Beata Gårdeler’s In Your Veins (I skuggan av värmen, 2009) and Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in, 2008).
Stockholm
Production companies based in Stockholm have Daniel Espinosa’s Easy Money (Snabba Cash, 2010) and Daniel Wallentin’s One Eye Red (Ett Öga Rött, 2007) to their credit.
A hair-raising glimpse of Stockholm’s underworld in Easy Money, starring Joel Kinnaman (center). Photo: Frank Aschberg/Nordisk Film
Publisher:
Swedish Institute
Published:
November 2010
Copyright:
Published by the Swedish Institute at www.sweden.se. All content is protected by Swedish copyright law. The text may be reproduced, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast in any media for noncommercial use with reference to www.sweden.se. However, no photographs or illustrations may be used.