Skateboards, synth pop and Stellan Skarsgård

Erik Svedberg-Zelman and Rebecca Plymholt as synth-pop artists Fredrik and Nina in Düsseldorf, Skåne. Photo: Joen Bergenrud

Stellan Skarsgård voices animated children’s film, Fredrik Gertten makes documentary on social contracts, and 1980s Sweden features in films about synth-pop dreams and skate culture. These are just some of the in total 53 Swedish projects to be granted production funding.

Passage by Levan Akin (And Then We Danced) is a story about love and longing for a place to belong. About the families people make when their biological families let them down. The documentary Born to Fly follows world record pole vaulter Armand Duplantis and his way to the top. An American-Swedish co-production directed by Brennan Robideaux.

Stellan Skarsgård voices Stina Wirsén and Linda Hambäck’s Who is Big? (Vem är stor?, written by Wirsén), a film for a very young audience. The characters are now grown up, with hair under their arms and their own mobile phones. The film is animated by Dockhus, which previously worked on Niki Lindroth von Bahr’s international award-winner The Burden (Min börda).

Düsseldorf, Skåne is set in 1986 and is written and directed by Patrik Blomberg Book. Synth-pop artist Fredrik lives in a southern Swedish village and is going out with like-minded Nina, who has dreams of being a photographer. Fredrik is the singer in a synth-pop band, but his alcoholic parents risk ruining his life. Just before the band’s first gig, everything comes to a head and Fredrik’s life is turned upside-down.

Pushing - from Rättvik to California (Pushing – från Rättvik till Kalifornien) is a skateboarding documentary by Christopher Sanitate, Klas Hjertberg, Katja Uneborg and Robert Gustafsson. In the 1980s, Rättvik became the new California and put the Swedish town on the skateboarding map. Forty years later, the past comes to life and 10-year-old skater Hedda steps into the spotlight.

Norwegian-Swedish co-production Handling the Undead (Hanteringen av odöda) is a horror drama by first-feature director Thea Hvistendahl, with screenplay by Hvistendahl and John Ajvide Lindqvist. The film is set in Oslo over a couple of hot summer days, when the power cuts out, a collective migraine starts spreading and the recently dead come to life. The cast includes Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World) and Bahar Pars.

Documentary Breaking Social by Fredrik Gertten (Push) is about our society’s ideas about social contracts and global patterns of kleptocracy and extractivism. The film recently world premièred at CPH:DOX.

Short film Madden by Malin Ingrid Johansson is aimed at teenagers and tells a story about relating to your herd and about duty versus longing. About high-heeled shoes in cow dung and frightened heavy animal bodies. Malin Ingrid Johansson won an upcoming talent prize in Cannes, and the film recently won Sweden’s biggest short film competition.

Family comedy Håkan Bråkan 2 is the sequel to the spin-off from the popular films about Sune. The film is directed by Ted Kjellsson with screenplay by Thobias Hoffmén and Christoffer Sandler, and has been granted market funding. Håkan Bråkan really wants a pet, but first he has to prove he’s responsible enough. Can he get through a week of Scout camp without causing absolute chaos?

Stills and more about all 53 projects here