Swedish international co-production Tigers selected for Rome Film Festival

Erik Enge in Tigers by Ronnie Sandahl. Photo by Marek Wieser / Black Spark Film & TV

Director Ronnie Sandahl’s new feature Tigers, a Swedish-Italian-Danish co-production, is selected for the prestiguos official section at the Rome International Film Festival, as well as for Alice nella città, the independent and parallell section dedicated to films for children and youth, at the Rome International Film Festival.

Tigers is a life and death rollercoaster ride through the modern-day football industry. With a unique perspective on the world of professional sports, Ronnie Sandahl tells the true story of 16-year-old football prodigy Martin Bengtsson. A coming-of-age drama about a young man’s burning obsession in a world where everything, and everyone, has a price tag.

– Through a young talent’s experiences as a commodity in the global football industry, I want to depict an arena which in many ways serves as a funhouse mirror of our male-dominated, capitalist society: as absurd, entertaining and seductive as it is potentially fatal, says director Ronnie Sandahl.

Ronnie Sandahl is a Swedish screenwriter, novelist and director with background in journalism. Tigers (2020) marks the second installment in Sandahl’s sports trilogy, focusing on the psychological, financial and political aspects of the world of sports. The first film was Borg vs. McEnroe (2017), and the recently announced Perfect (2021, director: Olivia Wilde), set in the world of female gymnastics, will be the last film of the trilogy.

Ronnie Sandahl’s first feature Underdog (2014) won prizes at Zurich and Chicago Film Festival. His second feature as a screenwiriter, Borg vs. McEnroe, opened the 2017 Toronto Film Festival. The film won the Audience Award at the Rome Film Festival and was nominated for ten Guldbagge Awards (The Swedish National Film Award). It won two of them and was also nominated for two European Film Awards.

Director’s filmography:
Underdog / Svenskjävel (2016), Writer/Director
Borg vs. McEnaroe / Borg (2017), Writer
Tigers / Tigrar (2020), Writer/Director
Perfect (2021), Writer

Principal cast Erik Enge, Alfred Enoch, Maurizio Lombardi, Frida Gustavsson, Antonio Bannò, Antonio Zavatteri, Alberto Basaluzzo, Daniele La Leggia, Gianluca Di Gennaro, Lino Musella
Screenwriter: Ronnie Sandahl

Produced by Piodor Gustafsson (Border, The Wife) BLACK SPARK FILM & Sandahlgruppen, Art of Panic and SF Studios production with SVT, Rai Cinema and BAHRA FILM with the collaboration of Tapelessfilm service and 9.99 film and with the support from the Swedish Film Institute, film commissioner Jenny Gilbertsson, Mibact, POR FESR Regione Piemonte 2014-2020 and DFI Co-Minor

Duration: 112 min
National release: Spring 2021
International premiere: Rome Film Fest 2020 / Busan Film Festival 2020
Sales: Wild Bunch International Sales

Rome Film Festival will be held from 15th October to 25th October.
More information; https://www.romacinemafest.it/en/rome-film-fest/