New films by Moodysson, Gandini and Eklöf

From Glaspest (English title tba). Photo: Emil Klang

The latest projects receiving funding from the Swedish Film Institute are packed with major internationally successful names from the Swedish film world, in both fiction and documentary. Lukas Moodysson, Ellen Fiske, Erik Gandini, Isabella Eklöf and Daniel Espinosa can all be found among the 25 projects to be granted funding.

Together 99 (Tillsammans 99), written and directed by Lukas Moodysson (Show Me Love), tells the story of a group of very different individuals who in 1975 lived in a commune called “Together”. Now it is 1999, 24 years later, and the collective has turned into the world's smallest. The commune consists of only two people - Göran and Klasse. Feeling a bit lonely, the idea occurs of a reunion with their old friends…

The documentary Leaving Jesus by Ellen Fiske (Tribeca competition Scheme Birds, together with Ellinor Hallin) follows a group of Christian ex-fundamentalists who gather at a retreat centre in San Francisco to free themselves from the community they were born into, and the traumas and inner demons that came with it.

Erik Gandini (Videocracy) directs After Work, a documentary about artificial intelligence and work. Most of the jobs that exist today could vanish in a few decades. As automation and artificial intelligence exceed human capacity, we will be forced to rethink the role work plays in our lives. This film explores this future scenario. With characters and narratives across four continents, the film seeks an existential answer to what work means today, and what things could be like in the future.

Daniel Espinosa (Safe House) is back in Sweden and directs Madame Luna, written by Maurizio Braucci and Suha Arraf. An Eritrean refugee is washed ashore in Libya. After being forced to flee to Italy, she finds herself progressing quickly within the illegal networks that exploit refugees. Eventually, Luna must choose between a good life in the Mafia or saving the young Eritrean girl Eli, who forces Luna to confront her past. The film is based on an idea by Binyam Berhane.

Kalak is directed by Isabella Eklöf (Holiday) and written by Eklöf and Kim Leine. It is a film about Jan, father and nurse, who has fled his past after being sexually abused by his father. He now tries to become part of the Greenlandic collectivism culture the only way he knows how: by fucking his way there. Based on a true story.

Among the shorter films are Visit Varberg by Simon Vahlne, who competed in Cannes with his previous short, Fight on a Swedish Beach!!. American photographer Nick finds himself in Varberg to take pictures for its tourist campaign. He instantly falls in love with the town, it’s beautiful and very photogenic. But what are these ‘ragger-cars’ the ad agency wants him to delete?

Read more and view images from the latest projects to be granted funding