Filmmakers and projects announced for Bergman Revisited

14 July 2018 would have been Ingmar Bergman’s 100th birthday. With its Bergman Revisited initiative, this summer the Swedish Film Institute and Swedish Public Broadcaster SVT invited experienced directors to apply for funding to make a short film inspired by the universe of Ingmar Bergman.

Six of Sweden’s most prominent directors and screenwriters have now been confirmed for the production of short films, which will premiere at the 2018 Göteborg Film Festival and be broadcast on Swedish public service channel SVT1 in summer 2018.

The Swedish Film Institute and SVT are jointly contributing SEK 1 million (just over €100,000) to each film.

The projects are:

Bergmans Reliquarium
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Idea and concept: Jesper Waldersten, produced by Another Park Film, Fatima Varhos.
Bergmans Reliquarium is a visual association play looking into Bergman’s most sacred secrets.

Knölen
Director: Jane Magnusson
Screenplay: Jane Magnusson and Liv Strömquist, illustration: Liv Strömquist, produced by B-Reel Feature Films, Cecilia Nessen.
A film about Bergman’s best side.

Scener ur natten
Director: Pernilla August
Screenplay: Cilla Naumann, produced by Avanti Film, Anna Anthony.
She and he meet on an archipelago boat for a weekend of love. To date they have been in complete agreement about their secret relationship, but the night on the deserted island changes everything.

Ariel
Screenwriter & director: Linus Tunström
Produced by FilmLance International, Anders Landström.
A girl is born with wings. When Filip and Anna discover that their daughter is not like others, they react in diametrically different ways. Anna sees it as a miracle, Filip as a stigma. Must one cut all ties with the magical to survive as an adult?

Guds tystnad
Director: Lisa Aschan
Screenplay: Lisa Aschan and Isabel Cruz Liljegren, produced by Garagefilm International, Anna-Maria Kantarius.
Lisa Aschan and Isabel Cruz Liljegren are inspired by The Silence (Tystnaden) but swap Bergman’s vision for their own. Magnetic love and sapphic relations are promised when Ester and Anna break their silence.

Infektionen
Screenwriter & director: Patrik Eklund
Produced by Salmonfox, Mathias Fjellström.
We enter straight into the action where married couple Krister and Kristina Carnemo are seeing marriage counsellor Miriam. The small annoyances so characteristic of their relationship recently have become increasingly palpable, and they leave the clinic full of doubts.

Helena Ingelsten, Producer and Editor at SVT Short Film said:

“Everyone has their own experience of Bergman, or certainly has had at some point. With Bergman Revisited we are updating the director for the modern age. There will be traces of him in the films from some of today’s most interesting active directors and artists. A new generation is being given the chance to discover Bergman, and an older generation can see him in a new guise,.”