11/05/2016 - Harald Hamrell is directing Sweden’s big 2017-2018 TV drama, a 20-part chronicle about a family running one of the most prestigious restaurants in Stockholm

On Monday 2 May, Swedish pubcaster SVT started the shoot for Our Time Is Now in Gothenburg, a 20-part TV series and a major drama for next year – the first season will air in the autumn of 2017. With Sweden’s Harald Hamrell as conceptual director, the series is being produced by Susann Billberg for Jarowskij, SVT, MTG’s Viaplay and Swedish regional film centre Film Väst.

Scripted by Swedish screenwriter Ulf Kvensler from an idea by Johan Rosenlind, Our Time Is Now follows the Löwander family, which runs one of the most prestigious restaurants in the heart of Stockholm. It begins on 7 May 1945: the Second World War is over, and a new era of the welfare state is about to begin, obviously entailing conflicts between the old and the new. 

Through sometimes dubious means, the eldest son, Gustaf (Mattias Nordkvist), has succeeded in running the restaurant during the difficult years of the war, and now he wants to continue managing the business in the usual family way. However, the middle son, Peter (Adam Lundgren), realises that the restaurant has major problems and requires drastic changes in order to survive the new times.

Meanwhile, the youngest daughter, Nina (Hedda Stiernstedt), lives a carefree, upper-class life, embracing the new era. And in the wings, the family matriarch, Helga (Suzanne Reuter), tries to keep the conflicts under control and hold the family together, defending the restaurant's position in a changing society with the help of herchef (Peter Dalle), who represents her eyes and ears in the business.

“Traditionally, we film between ten and 12 episodes of a series, and then decide on a possible new season; this time, we are trying to make a different variant, betting on two seasons from the beginning – the first for late 2017, and the second likely to come the following year,” said head of SVT Drama Christian Wikander.