Press service
From Aniara. Photo: Rutger Sjögrim

Garbo, Borg and an epic in space

Tennis drama Borg/McEnroe, space epic Aniara, documentaries on Utøya and Dag Hammarskjöld, and new films by Joachim Trier and Lars von Trier are some of the projects to receive funding from the Swedish Film Institute.

Borg / McEnroe by Janus Metz Pedersen follows the battle between tennis giants Björn Borg (played by two-time Guldbagge Award winner Sverrir Gudnason, Blowfly Park (Flugparken) and Monica Z ) and John McEnroe (Shia LaBeouf).

Aniara is based on Nobel Prize-winning author Harry Martinson's space epic, in which a spaceship goes off course and the crew lose their moral compass. Directors Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja achieved acclaim for their zombie drama The Unliving (Återfödelsen), their graduation film from the University College of Film, Radio, Television and Theatre.

The documentary Reconstructing Utøya by Carl Javér has been awarded funding through Eurimages, the Council of Europe's Cinema Support Fund. The film reconstructs the massacre of 2011 and follows five survivors. Cold Case Hammarskjöld, a documentary by Mads Brügger, looks at the UN's investigation into whether the air crash that killed Dag Hammarskjöld was an assassination.Lars von Trier's serial killer drama The House That Jack Built is awarded funding, and the principal producer of the film is Danish company Zentropa. Joachim Trier's Norwegian-Swedish film Thelma also receives funding. Thelma is a supernatural thriller about a young woman who, as she finds love, discovers she has frightening powers. Motlys of Norway is principal producer.

The short film To Garbo and Lenin by Jessica Laurén focuses on an imaginary meeting in Stockholm between Greta Garbo and Vladimir Lenin.

Feature films

And Breathe Normally
Director Isold Uggadottir
Screenplay Isold Uggadottir
Producer Annika Hellström
Funding recipient Cinenic Film AB *
Target group Adults
Film type Feature
Genre Drama
Technique Live action
Film commissioner Suzanne Glansborg
Funding granted 1 000 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: On the outskirts of Iceland's main airport, the lives of two women cross – just briefly – confined in unforeseen circumstances. An asylum-seeker and a struggling Icelandic single mother form an unlikely bond. Both are fighting to get their lives back on track.

* Swedish co-producer. Main producer: Zik zak Filmproduktion, Skuli Malmqvist, Iceland

From Aniara. Photo: Rutger Sjögrim

Aniara
Directors Pella Kågerman, Hugo Lilja
Screenplay Pella Kågerman, Hugo Lilja
Producer Annika Rogell
Funding recipient Meta Film Stockholm AB
Target group Adults
Film type Feature
Genre Science fiction
Technique Live action
Film commissioner Baker Karim
Funding granted 8 000 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: A Swedish feature-length film based on Nobel Prize-winning author Harry Martinson's space epic.

Borg / McEnroe
Director Janus Metz Pedersen
Screenplay Ronnie Sandahl
Producers Jon Nohrstedt, Fredrik Wikström Nicastro
Funding recipient SF Studios Production AB
Target group Adults
Film type Feature
Genre Drama
Technique Live action
Film commissioner Yaba Holst
Funding granted 11 000 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: Borg/McEnroe is a story about the price of success. A film about the world's two best tennis players, who even in their early twenties felt like prisoners in their own careers. Two sportsmen in a commercialised tennis industry, constantly reduced to the other's opposite: "Ice Borg" and "Superbrat".

From The Charmer. Photo: Sophia Olsson

The Charmer (Charmören)
Director Milad Alami
Screenplay Ingeborg Topsöe, Milad Alami
Producers Rebecka Lafrenz, Mimmi Spång
Funding recipient Garagefilm International AB **
Target group Adults
Film type Feature
Genre Drama
Technique Live action
Film commissioner Yaba Holst
Funding granted 420 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: The Charmer is an intense psychological drama about Esmail, a young Iranian man who is desperately looking to meet women who can secure his stay in Denmark. As time is running out he falls in love with one woman as another woman's husband sets out for revenge. 

**Swedish co-producer. Main producer: Good Company Films, Stinna Lassen, Denmark

What a Circus! (Vilken Cirkus!)
Director Lotte Svendsen
Screenplay Lotte Svendsen
Producer Christer Nilson
Funding recipient GötaFilm International AB*
Target group Family
Film type Feature
Genre Drama
Technique Live action
Film commissioner Suzanne Glansborg
Funding granted 1 100 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: A film that is above all a declaration of love for the magic of circus and the alternative family life. But also a serious film about the consequences of unresolved adult conflict. A film about lies and insights, but also the ability to forgive and work together – for the children! A universal story set in a different, entertaining environment.

* Swedish co-producer. Main producer: Asta Film DK26912059, Per Holst, Denmark

From Cold Case Hammarskjold. Photo: Göran Bjorkdahl

Cold Case Hammarskjöld
Director Mads Brügger
Screenplay Mads Brügger
Producer Andreas Rocksén
Funding recipient Laika Film & Television AB*
Target group Adults
Film type Documentary
Technique Live action
Film commissioner Cecilia Lidin
Funding granted 350 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: The circumstances surrounding the air crash in Ndola remain unclear. The UN now wants to investigate whether it was an attack. Filmmaker Mats Brügger and amateur researcher Göran Björkdahl decide to find out the truth about Dag Hammarskjöld's death.

* Swedish co-producer. Main producer: Wingman Media Aps, Peter Engel, Denmark

From En svensk tiger.

En svensk tiger (English title tba)
Director Carl Svensson
Screenplay Carl Svensson
Producers Hans-Peter Lundh, Daniella Elmqvist Prah
Funding recipient Filmkreatörerna AB
Target group Adults
Film type Documentary
Technique Live action
Film commissioner Antonio Russo Merenda
Funding granted 600 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: On a train, Swedish diplomat Göran von Otter receives one of the first witness testimonies about the Holocaust from SS officer Kurt Gerstein. Göran's daughter Birgitta sets off to meet Gerstein's daughter. The women are linked by a meeting between their fathers. An emotional story of shame, guilt and personal responsibility.

The House That Jack Built
Director Lars von Trier
Screenplay Lars von Trier
Producer Madeleine Ekman
Funding recipient Zentropa Sweden AB ****
Target group Adults
Film type Feature
Genre Drama
Technique Live action
Film commissioner Suzanne Glansborg
Funding granted 2 500 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: The US in the 1970s. We follow Jack over 12 years, and through the murders he commits we see the development of a serial killer.

****Swedish co-producer. Main producer: Zentropa Ent 3, Louise Vesth, Denmark

From Notherland. Photo: Per Bifrost

Notherland
Directors Alexander Rynéus, Malla Grapengiesser, Per Bifrost
Screenplay Per Bifrost, Malla Grapengiesser, Alexander Rynéus
Producer Malla Grapengiesser
Funding recipient Fosfor Produktion AB
Target group Adults
Film type Documentary
Technique Live action
Film commissioner Klara Grunning
Funding granted 1 200 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: Hope, dreams, fighting for a cause, menstrual rebellion, municipal commissioners, new Swedes, youths, factory owners, fairy-tales, magical nature, cows and much more are interwoven in a narrative about life in one of Sweden's smallest municipalities, with Sweden's smallest central town and the municipality with the most small farms and the second highest cow population.

From Memory Games. Photo: ma.ja.de

Memory Games
Directors Janet Tobias, Claus Wehlisch
Screenplay Janet Tobias, Claus Wehlisch
Producer David Herdies
Funding recipient Momento Film AB ***
Target group Adults
Film type Documentary
Technique Mixed
Film commissioner Klara Grunning
Funding granted 470 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: Memory Games follows memory masters from Germany, Sweden and the US on their way to the World Memory Championships. With unique, animated visualisation techniques, we are given tips and strategies that the geniuses use to remember incredible amounts of data.

***Swedish co-producer. Main producer: Ma.Ja.De. Filmproduktions GmbH, Heino Deckert, Germany

My Mother (Min mor)
Director Maj Wechselmann
Screenplay Maj Wechselmann
Producer Maj Wechselmann
Funding recipient Produktionsgruppen Wechselmann AB
Target group Adults
Film type Documentary
Technique Mixed
Film commissioner Klara Grunning
Funding granted 540 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: Regina was born in Ukraine in 1902 in a Jewish village, her family fled from early massacres of Jews. She was smuggled out of Ukraine, alone, in 1923, and worked her way up through Europe with no passport. She became a union organiser in Montreal in the 1920s, met my Danish father, and fled to Sweden in 1944, heavily pregnant. A courageous woman during hard times.

From Morran och Tobias - Som en skänk från ovan. Photo: Nordisk Film

Morran och Tobias - Som en skänk från ovan (English title tba)
Director Mats Lindberg
Screenplay Robert Gustafsson, Johan Rheborg, Stefan Wiik, Mats Lindberg
Producers Emma Nyberg, Niklas Jakobsson
Funding recipient Jarowskij Sverige AB
Target group Youth / Adults
Film type Feature
Genre Comedy
Technique Live action
Film commissioner Yaba Holst
Funding granted 4 000 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: A tragi-comic dcumentary-like film about a family on the outside of society. They only have each other, cigarettes and online shopping. A fire gives them the chance for a fresh start – but the new is suspiciously like the old.

Joachim Trier directs Thelma. Photo: Steffen Oftedal

Thelma
Director Joachim Trier
Screenplay Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt
Producer Mattias Nohrborg
Funding recipient B-Reel Feature Films AB*
Target group Adults
Film type Feature
Genre Drama
Technique Live action
Film commissioner Yaba Holst
Funding granted 1 000 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: Thelma is a supernatural thriller about a young woman who, as she finds love, discovers she has frightening supernatural powers.

*Swedish co-producer. Main producer: Motlys, Thomas Robhsam, Norway

The Wife
Director Björn Runge
Screenplay Jane Andersson
Producer Peter Gustafsson
Funding recipient Black Spark Productions AB *****
Target group Adults
Film type Feature
Genre Drama
Technique Live action
Film commissioner Yaba Holst
Funding granted 2 000 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: For 40 years, Joan has sacrificed her dreams and talents to pander to her charismatic husband Joe and his stratospheric career in the literary world. Their long marriage has been built on a very uneven foundation, and Joan has finally had enough. On the night Joe is to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, the highlight of his success story, Joan finally decides to reveal the big secret.

*****Swedish co-producer. Main producer: Meta Film, Meta Foldager, Denmark

Short film

From All the Dear Little Animals. Bild: Eva Eriksson

All the Dear Little Animals (Alla döda små djur)
Director Michael Ekblad
Screenplay Michael Ekblad, Christian Puille
Producer Michael Ekblad
Funding recipient Slugger Film AB*
Target group Children
Film type Feature
Genre Other
Technique Animated
Film commissioner Andreas Fock
Funding granted 400 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: A special burial firm drives around helping all the poor little animals lying dead on the ground. One digs, one writes poems and a third one cries. A classic hand-animated short film based on a book by Ulf Nilsson and Eva Eriksson.
*Swedish co-producer. Main producer: Alexandra Schatz Filmproduktion UG, Alexandra Schatz, Germany

From Burka Songs 2.0. Photo: Annika Busch

Burka Songs 2.0
Director Hanna Högstedt
Screenplay Hanna Högstedt
Producers Hanna Högstedt, Archana Khanna
Funding recipient Firma Hanna Högstedt
Target group Adults
Film type Documentary
Technique Live action
Film commissioner Andreas Fock
Funding granted 250 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: In 2011, France banned the full-coverage veil in public spaces. Hanna Högstedt was given funding for a film in which she would walk around in a burqa in Paris, singing the French national anthem until she was arrested by the police. But it all went wrong. Why?

Felipe
Director Alexander Rönnberg
Screenplay Alexander Rönnberg
Producer Agnes Blåsjö
Funding recipient Silvio Entertainment AB
Target group Adults
Film type Feature
Genre Horror
Technique Live action
Film commissioner Andreas Fock
Funding granted 200 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: There's something not right in the house by the water. A man comes home and hears his son calling, but the boy is nowhere to be seen. Felipe is a creepy horror film in a safe, idyllic settings, where something is hiding beneath the surface.

From Juck. Photo: Linus Enlund

Juck (English title tba)
Directors Olivia Kastebring, Julia Gumpert
Screenplay Ulrika Bandeira, Olivia Kastebring, Julia Gumpert
Producers Sophie Tamm Christensen, Erik Torell, Ulrika Bandeira
Funding recipient New L. Film AB
Target group Youth
Film type Documentary
Technique Live action
Film commissioner Klara Grunning
Funding granted 330 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: There's something not right in the house by the water. A man comes home and hears his son calling, but the boy is nowhere to be seen. Felipe is a creepy horror film in a safe, idyllic settings, where something is hiding beneath the surface.

From Mama-Dada-Gaga. Photo: Frida Wendel

Mama-Dada-Gaga
Director Åsa Cederqvist
Screenplay Åsa Cederqvist
Producer Leontine Arvidsson
Funding recipient MinMamma Produktion AB
Target group Adults
Film type Documentary
Technique Live action
Film commissioner Andreas Fock
Funding granted 380 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: Mama-Dada-Gaga is a tribute to creativity and trust. With her daughter and a mother with Parkinson's, artist Åsa Cederqvist plays with the trials and magical moments of everyday life. Together they let work and leisure merge into one in an attempt to stop time.

Min börda (English title tba)
Director Niki Lindroth von Bahr
Screenplay Niki Lindroth von Bahr
Producer Kalle Wettre
Funding recipient Malade AB
Target group Adults
Film type Feature
Genre Musical
Technique Animated
Film commissioner Andreas Fock
Funding granted 550 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: An animated short film of 10-15 minutes, in stop motion on the theme of music and dance. The film is divided into four episodes set in an ICA Maxi supermarket, a long-term hotel, a call centre and a hamburger restaurant. All the settings are in a shopping mall/department store along a major motorway somewhere in Sweden/Northern Europe. It is night time.

From Studio 5. © Maximilien Van Aertryck & Axel Danielson

Studio 5
Directors Maximilien van Aertryck, Axel Danielsson
Screenplay Maximilien van Aertryck, Axel Danielsson
Producers Maximilien van Aertryck, Axel Danielsson
Funding recipient Plattform Produktion AB
Target group Adults
Film type Documentary
Technique Live action
Film commissioner Klara Grunning
Funding granted 60 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: STUDIO 5 is set in the broadcast studio for Sweden's biggest TV news programme, Aktuellt. Using Aktuellt's own studio cameras, but with a different rhythm to the broadcast, news reporting is portrayed as a heavily edited performance.

From To Garbo and Lenin. Photo: Jessica Laurén

To Garbo and Lenin
Director Jessica Laurén
Screenplay Jessica Laurén
Producer Hend Aroal
Funding recipient Dessiné AB
Target group Adults
Film type Feature
Genre Drama
Technique Mixed
Film commissioner Andreas Fock
Funding granted 450 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: Greta Garbo and Vladimir Lenin meet at the PUB department store. They have both lost a dream. Their talk lasts a whole day as they wander through a 1910s Stockholm. A historical fantasy in mixed techniques, about two destinies that meet.

Untitled (title tba)
Director Hannes Holm
Screenplay Peter Birro
Producer Lena Rehnberg
Funding recipient Stella Nova Film AB
Target group Adults
Film type Feature
Genre Drama
Technique Live action
Film commissioner Yaba Holst
Funding granted 5 000 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: A film about one of the biggest artists of our age, Ted Gärdestad, and his brother Kenneth. It is about the love of music and a strong brotherly bond. A journey through the fame and glory of the 1970s, to the more private 1980s and the comeback in the '90s.

Road 13 (Väg 13)
Directors Paolo Iskra, Kim Sundbeck
Screenplay Paolo Iskra, Kim Sundbeck
Producer Helene Granqvist
Funding recipient Nordic Factory Film & TV Sweden AB
Target group Adults
Film type Feature
Genre Horror
Technique Live action
Film commissioner Andreas Fock
Funding granted 200 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: A 5-minute-long horror film set in a claustrophobic traffic jam. Sonja is on her way to the vet to have her dog put to sleep. In the car beside her is a mysterious man who somehow seems to know where she's going and what's going to happen, but has other plans for her.

Automatic funding

Bamse och jakten på dunderklockan (English title tba)
Director Christian Ryltenius
Screenplay Tomas Tivemark, Fabian Norlander
Producer Jon Nohrstedt
Funding recipient SF Studios Production AB
Target group Children
Film type Feature
Genre Other
Technique Animated
Funding granted 5 700 000 SEK
Production company's presentation: During the quest for the Thunder Bells, the flowers that contain the ingredient that makes him strong, Bamse has to learn something important: to just be yourself is often all it takes. Something Reynard Fox and Victor Vole also would feel better for understanding.

 

Print