SALES Sweden / Finland
Sweden’s Stenberg on the road: Kerouac, female version
by Jorn Rossing Jensen
03/04/2012 - Right after World War II, before completing high school, an 18-year-old Swedish girl – Birgitta Stenberg – bought a one-way ticket to Southern Europe and plunged into a wild life with bohemians from around the world. She was exploited and exploited others, she had lovers of both sexes, took drugs, there were daily risks and adventures - not unlike, a bit later, US writer Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation, but told by a woman who became both a catholic and a communist and worked for the CIA.
Today, at 80, a successful author with more than 30 titles to her credit, adding children’s books, plays, film and TV scripts, Stenberg looks back at the years where she got inspiration, made connection and laid the foundation for her career, in Swedish directors Lisa Belfrage and Marianne Gustavsson’s documentary The Wild Ones.
Produced by Kristina Åberg for Stockholm’s Atmo, The Wild Ones, following Stenberg on trips to New York, Paris and Rome to meet former lovers and friends discussing their then choices and their consequences, has been picked up by Swedish-Finnish international sales agency, The Yellow Affair, which will introduce it to the international markets at this week’s MIP-TV in Cannes (which ends on April 4).
In Cannes The Yellow Affair’s Sales and Marketing Manager Chris Howard is also touting Finnish director Aleksi Bardy’s Madame President, a documentary portraying Finland’s first woman president who has held the post for 12 years; and Swedish director Andrea Östlund’s Life Coaches, a 6x28mins TV series starring Lena Endre as head of the Carina Lind Group coaching its clients towards success and happiness – but it is not always easy to practice what you preach.
