Pernilla August’s A Serious Game to premiere at a Berlinale Gala
- The Swedish actress-director returns to Berlin with her second feature as a director, an adaptation of Hjalmar Söderberg’s 1912 love story
Swedish actress-turned-director Pernilla August’s second feature, A Serious Game [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Karin Franz Körlof
film profile], a new interpretation of Swedish author Hjalmar Söderberg’s 1912 novel The Serious Game, will have its world premiere at a Berlinale Gala during the Berlin International Film Festival (11-21 February).
August’s first full-length movie as a director, Beyond [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2010), garnered her three Guldbagges, Sweden’s national film prize, the Nordic Film Prize and seven additional awards at international festivals (Ljubljana, Sao Paulo, Hamburg and Venice).
Scripted by award-winning Danish writer-director Lone Scherfig, A Serious Game follows the love story between a journalist, Arvid Stjärnblom, and an artist’s daughter, Lydia Stille. They share a dream of clean, grand and unspoiled love, but the price entails a greater sacrifice than they had imagined.
With Swedish actors Sverrir Gudnason (Waltz for Monica [+see also:
trailer
interview: Edda Magnason
interview: Per Fly
film profile]) and Karin Franz Körlof (Nobody Owns Me [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) in the leads, and co-starring Liv Mjönes and Michael Nyqvist, the turn-of-the-century story was produced by Frida Bargo, Patrik Andersson and Fredrik Heinig for Sweden’s B-Reel Films, with Film i Väst, Norway’s Motlys, Denmark’s Nimbus and Canada’s Reel Ventures.
“It is fantastic to finally see A Serious Game flying,” said August. “I am very happy that we get to have a world premiere in Berlin, and it will be very exciting to get back there with a film that I have directed.” In 2004, she won a Silver Bear at Berlin alongside the ensemble cast of Swedish director Björn Runge’s Daybreak.
Söderberg’s novel was first filmed in 1977 as Games of Love and Loneliness by Norwegian director Anja Breien. The updated version will be launched in the Nordic countries on 8 September by Nordisk Film Distribution; international sales are handled by Denmark’s TrustNordisk.
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