Moodysson’s teenage girls move from Åmål to Stockholm

by Jorn Rossing Jensen

19/04/2012 - While Swedish director Lukas Moodysson’s feature debut, Fucking Åmål! (Show Me Love (1998)) depicted the lives of two teenage girls in small-town Sweden, he moves to the capital of Stockholm for We Are The Best!, also returning to local filmmaking after his international Mammoth [trailer] (2009) venture.

Based on his wife Coco Moodysson’s cartoon album Never Goodnight, Moodysson’s fifth feature, set in 1982, follows Bobo, Klara and Hedvig, three 12-13-year-old neglected girls who are brave and tough and strong and weak and confused and weird, but have had to take care of themselves too early.

They decide to start a punk band, although they don’t have any instruments, and everybody else tells them that 'punk is dead'. They are different, but they are friends, and in the end nothing compares to friendship. ”I want to make a happy film full of hope and vitality,” the director explained.

Moodysson (pictured) has continued his collaboration since Fucking Åmål! with Swedish producer Lars Jönsson, who will direct the film for his Memfis Film in collaboration with Swedish regional film centre, Film i Väst, in Trollhättan. Swedish major, Svensk Filmindustri AB, will handle local release and Denmark’s TrustNordisk international sales.

Currently casting, We Are The Best! will start principal photography August-September on locations in Stockholm and in Film i Väst studios for delivery next autumn. ”We are thrilled to continue working with Moodysson who has shot all his films here,” said head of production Jessica Ask, of Film i Väst.