23/04/2015 - Magnus von Horn’s feature debut and David Sandberg’s Kung Fury have been selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes (13-24 May)

While Swedish writer-director Magnus von Horn was studying at the Polish National Film School in Lodz, he signed several award-winning shorts, including Echo (2009) and Without Snow (2011). Having returned to Sweden, he shot his first feature last year, The Here After [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Magnus von Horn
film profile], which has been selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes. 

Also, Swedish director David Sandberg’s 30-minute action-comedy Kung Fury will screen in the festival sidebar, adding to the Swedish representation on the Côte d’Azur between 13 and 24 May. Not only does Swedish Hollywood actress Ingrid Bergman adorn the official festival poster, but Swedish director Stig Björkman’s biopic on her, Ingrid Bergman – In Her Own Words, will also have its world premiere at Cannes.

Filmed in western Sweden from von Horn’s own screenplay, The Here After begins some time before: it is the story of a 17-year-old boy who returns home after serving a prison sentence. He is looking forward to starting life afresh, but in the local community, his crime is neither forgotten nor forgiven. His presence brings out the worst in everyone around him, and a confrontation is inevitable.

Swedish pop artist Ulrik Munther stars (his first film role), together with Mats Blomgren and Wieslaw Komasa, in the Madeleine Ekman and Mariusz Wlodarski production for Zentropa International Sweden and Poland’s Lava Film, co-produced by Sophie Erbs for France's Cinéma Defacto. Nordisk Film Sweden is handling the Swedish release, while Denmark’s TrustNordisk is in charge of international sales.

In Kung Fury, writer-director Sandberg also plays the lead as policeman and kung-fu master Kung Fury, who is sent on the toughest mission of his life: back in time to meet dinosaurs, robots and Norse gods, in his quest to beat his nemesis, Adolf Hitler.

The “crazy homage to the 1980s action movies” was partly funded through a successful Kickstarter campaign, which racked up in excess of $630,000. Also supported by the Swedish Film Institute, the Linus Andersson and Eleni Young Karlsson production for Laserunicorns, which features US actor David Hasselhoff singing Knight Rider, will be aired by Swedish pubcaster SVT on 28 May.