Nine Swedish films selected for the Rotterdam Film Festival

Transnistra. Photo: Momento Film.

One of Europe’s largest and most ambitious film festivals is about to take place. This year’s edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, IFFR, is marked by strong Swedish presence with three features and six short films in various competitions.

– The International Film Festival Rotterdam is one of the finest film festivals, not just in Europe, but in the world. The festival is growing and has a reputation of featuring an interesting and exciting selection where they exhibit new forms of expression in the art of film and highlight up-and-coming film makers. Having two live action features, one documentary feature and six shorts in their selection is important for Swedish film and we are very pleased, says Steffen Andersen-Møller, Head of the International Department at the Swedish Film Institute.

In the Big Screen Competition, Anna Eborn’s Swedish-Danish-Belgian co-production Transnistra will have its world premiere at the festival.

With poetic and uncompromising films like Pine Ridge (Venice 2014), Epifanía (Busan 2017) and Lida (Visions du Réel 2018), Anna Eborn has stepped forward as one the most interesting Swedish documentary film makers of our time. Transnistra is an intimate and stunning film about youth, love and friendship in the strange state of Transnistria – a state that has not been recognised by anyone although has its own currency, army and flag with the hammer and sickle.

The film was produced by David Herdies, Momento Film, together with Adomeit Film in Denmark and cli d’oeil in Belgium with support from the Swedish Film Institute, commissioner Klara Grunning.

Johannes Nyholm’s Koko-di Koko-da is one out of eight films selected to compete in IFFR’s most prestigious section, the Tiger Competition.

A couple looking to reconnect with each other goes on a camping trip. A variety artist and his entourage of scoundrels appear out of the darkness of the forest and terrorise the couple, luring them deeper and deeper down a nightmare of psychological terror and humiliating slapstick.

Johannes Nyholm’s feature-length debut The Giant had its world premiere at San Sebastian Film Festival in 2016 and was awarded Best Picture at the Guldbagge Awards (the Swedish National Film Award). In 2011 his short film Las Palmas was awarded a Guldbagge for Best Short. He has been successful at a number of festivals, with three of his shorts screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Koko-di Koko-da will compete at Sundance Film Festival later this month.

The film was produced by Johannes Nyholm Produktion and co-produced by Maria Møller Christoffessen at BeoFilm, with support from the Swedish Film Institute, commissioner Yaba Holst. International sales are handled by Stray Dogs.

Anna Odell’s X&Y, which is currently holding two nominations for this year’s upcoming Guldbagge Awards, will have its international premiere in the Big Screen Competition in Rotterdam. The first prize includes wide exposure at the Dutch market, in theatres and on television.

X&Y invites you into a wild game of identities, between masculine and feminine, reality and fiction. Appearing as The Artist and The Actor, Anna Odell and Mikael Persbrandt chooses three actors each to portray their different characteristics. In a film studio where anything can happen they all live together. The ensuing result is a mad game unlike anything seen before.

The film was written and directed by Anna Odell. Her previous film The Reunion had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in 2014 where it received two awards. Odell was also awarded a Guldbagge for Best Film and Best Screenplay. The Reunion also picked up prizes at the film festivals in Brussels, Brattislava, Dublin, and in Trondheim. It was produced by Mattias Nohrborg and Frida Bargo of B-Reel Films together with Film i Väst, SVT, Avenyfamiljen, Fasad, and Nimbus Film, with support from the Swedish Film Institute, commissioner Yaba Holst. International sales are handled by New Europe Film Sales.

Six Swedish short films are also competing in the Bright Future Short-section: The Cup Is Already Filling Up by Debra Elgeholm, Interbeing by Martina Hogland Ivanov, Chopin by Tris Vonna-Michell, Psychic by Tova Mozard, Retaliation by Hanna Ljungh and The Burglary by Anna Selander and Malin Skjöld.

International Film Festival Rotterdam starts January 23rd and will go on until February 3rd. Read more about the festival here >>