09/01/2007

Finally, some good news for Swedish films! A local comedy, Göta Kanal 2-Kanalkampen and a quality arthouse film, Underbara Älskade (Wonderful Beloved) by Johan Brisinger, have managed to challenge Hollywood studio films at the box office during the holiday period.

Released by Svensk Film as a Christmas special on 168 screens, Pelle Seth’s Göta Kanal 2-Kanalkampen, produced Anders Birkeland and Göran Lindström (the duo behind As It Is In Heaven), was still topping the local chart over the New Year’s weekend with over €3m grossed.

As for Brisinger’s critically acclaimed feature debut, released by Sonet Film, it is holding firm on its eighth position with almost €100,000 grossed from 24 screens. The family drama had the second best screen average after Göta Kanal 2 and just above Casino Royale [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Produced by Mikael Flodell for Drama Svecia, Wonderful Beloved stars Michael Nyqvist and Anastasios Soulis. Following a car accident in which a mother and her youngest son are killed, the two other members of the family who survived the accident, the father and eldest son, try to deal with their sorrow and follow their path to reconciliation. The film was co-produced by Sonet Film, Film i Väst, SVT, Canal +, Octagon Nordic and Michael Nyqvist Film with support from the SFI and Nordic Film & TV Fund.

The positive results of those two local films are a small consolation to Swedish film professionals following a particularly bleak 2006: in spite of an unusually high offer of new Swedish films (34), only a handful managed to pas the 100,000 admissions bar. The biggest Swedish success of the year (according to SFI figures available until the end of October) was Colin Nutley’s Heartbreak Hotel [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which grabbed 12.4% of the market for Swedish films with 462,016 admissions, followed by private eye series Beck-Skarpt Läge (285,789) and football comedy Offside by Mårten Klingberg (248,226).