25/03/2013 - Iranian-Swedish director Mani Maserrat and the Trespassing Bergman documentary are among the projects to receive public production funding

There is no end to the Skarsgård family: Gustaf Skarsgård (photo), the son of Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård – and the brother of Alexander and Bill – will play the lead in Iranien-Swedish director Mani Maserrat’s Us, which is one of four new features with production funding from the Swedish Film Institute.

The institute will also support the theatrical version of the Bergman Video television series; Swedish director Jannik Splidsboel’s documentary, Days in Maremma, about local farmers’ conflict with city dwelllers and power companies; and Norwegian director Bobbie Peers’ Dirk Ohm – The Illusionist That Disappeared [+see also:
trailer
interview: Bobbie Peers
film profile], a Norwegian-Swedish co-production with Sweden’s Migma Film.

Scripted by Swedish writer-director Jens Jonsson (most recently Quick Money 3 - Life Deluxe), Us is the love story of Krister (Skarsgård, who was in the Oscar-nominated Kon-Tiki [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) and Ida (Anna Åström), which starts out with strong passion, romantic dreams and family hopes, but has devastating consequences.

Co-starring Rebecca Ferguson and Sten Ljunggren, and produced by Sandra Harms, Maserrat and Jonsson for Sonet Film and Café Cinema, Maserrat’s second feature (her Ciao Bella was also penned by Jonsson) will be released in May by Svensk Filmindustri.

Trespassing Bergman, the feature-long version of Swedish film critics Hynek Pallas and Jane Magnusson’s 6x45mins TV series Bergman’s Video, is mainly shot at Swedish director Bergman’s home on the Fårö island, which occupies a mythical status among filmmakers.

Focussing on six themes: fear, silence, comedy, death, adventure and otsiders – relevant to Bergman and the invited directors and actors – the Pallas-Magnusson interviews such movie dignitaries as Woody Allen, Robert de Niro, Michael Haneke, Ang Lee, Lars on Trier, Takeshi Kitano, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese about their relationships with the director and his films.

Produced by Fatima Varhos for Gädda Five, offering ”a new insight into the genius of Bergman and portraits of great filmmakers of today”, both Trespassing Bergman and Bergman’s Video are internationally launched by Zürich and Berlin-based First Hand Films.