03/07/2015 - Support is being provided for Swedish directors Suzanne Osten, Ella Lemhagen and Stefan Jarl – and UK director Mark Cousins’ Stockholm My Love

After nearly ten years, Swedish director Suzanne Osten – who won a Guldbagge, Sweden’s national film prize, for The Mozart Brothers (1986) – will return to the cinema. Yesterday (2 July), it was announced that The Girl, the Mother and the Demons [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which she scripted with Erik Uddeberg, has received €1 million of the €3.1 million production funding that the Swedish Film Institute has allocated for 11 new features. A thriller for children and a romantic drama for adults, the story about young Ti and her mother, who sees demons that nobody else can see, will be produced by Agneta J Bergenstråhle for Fundament Film-Lars Pettersson. 

Swedish director Ella Lemhagen, who released The Boy with the Golden Trousers last year, is preparing her first US film, All Roads Lead to Rome, starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Paz Vega and Claudia Cardinale. Co-produced by The Chimney Pot Sverige, the Sezar Film-Silvio Auraglia comedy was written by Cindy Mayers, Josh Appiganesi and Lemhagen.

Swedish actress Fanni Metelius (known for her role in Force Majeure [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile]), will direct her first feature, The Heart [+see also:
trailer
film profile], about how the balance of power in a relationship can change. In addition to writing the script, she will direct and star in the tale of liberation, sexuality and love. Metelius is also set to produce the project, along with Rebecka Lafrenz and Mimmy Spång for Garagefilm International.

Swedish director Stefan Jarl has scripted End of the Day, which he will also produce for Stefan Jarl AB. He describes the drama as “a family, a few dozen miles from a town. A roadblock. And nothing is as usual.”

Swedish director Kerstin Übelacker is planning Ghost Rockets with Michael Cavanagh, a documentary following a group of people preparing a costly UFO expedition. She will also produce for We Have A Plan.

Swedish director Jerzy Sladkowski’s documentary Love and Let Me Go, which he will stage for JS Filmproduction, is described as “a four-sided love triangle peppered with autism, neuroses and life crises in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia”.

Mona Lisa Story is an upcoming documentary by Swedish director Jessica Nettelbladt, for Lejoni Produktion. Filmed over eight years, it portrays a teacher and mother, who, after a bout of depression, turns to drug abuse. Then she meets Fredrik. 

Dexter, the namesake of Swedish director Ryszard Solarz’s documentary for Direkt Film & Media, has been hanging around the city square of Stockholm for some time, before social services send her to a home. There, she meets a new guy who doesn’t take drugs.

The institute also supported UK director Mark Cousins’ Swedish production of Stockholm My Love (read the news), Norwegian director Roar Uthaug’s The Wave (read the news) and Danish director Max Kestner’s Fang Rung (read the news).