25 Jan 2024, 9.00 AM
Three international premieres and a total of seven Swedish films are set to hit the screen during the International Film Festival in Rotterdam, starting 25 January-4 February 2024.
The epos about Swedish diplomat and Secretary-General of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld, will have its international premiere in Rotterdam. The movie, starring one of Swedens' most famous actors Mikael Persbrandt, portrays the last week of UN Secretary General Hammarskjöld. Dag Hammarskjöld takes on the task of brokering peace and unity in the country. An impossible task, according to many. A suicide mission, according to others.
Persbrandt is known to the Dutch public from the tv-series Martin Beck, where he played Gunvald Larsson. He was nominated for a Guldbagge for this role, his eighth nomination. Per Fly directed and wrote the screenplay together with Ulf Ryberg.
Madame Luna is a Swedish thriller based on real events. The film revolves around a refugee girl from Eritrea who eventually became one of the biggest refugee smugglers in Libya, Madame Luna, with connections to the Italian mafia.
Driven by the extraordinary central performance of Meninet Abraha Teferi, Madame Luna marks the return of Swedish-Chilean director Daniel Espinosa to a type of social issue cinema reminiscent of the Dardenne brothers, after a decade of star-studded work in America.
The Dutch film audience might know director Daniel Espinosa from "Easy Money" (Snabba Cash).
In Together 99, Lukas Moodysson reassembles the cast of "Together" (Tillsammans) to take stock of the Tillsammans commune twenty-four years later. It is 1999, and Klasse and Göran are the only remaining members of the group. To raise their flagging spirits, Klasse secretly invites the erstwhile members of the commune for Göran’s birthday bash. As estranged friends catch up with each other over a highly eventful evening, old scars resurface alongside new hopes.
Moodysson's movies "Show me Love" (Fucking Åmål) and "Lilja 4-ever" zijn bekend onder Nederlandse filmliefhebbers. "Together" was in 2001 op IFFR.
Srikanth Srinivasan, IFFR
"It is lit", Viktor Israel Strand's feature film debut will also has its world premiere in Rotterdam. The film is about Johan (played by Amund Öhrnell), a young man who works for the Swedish state and enables the sale of protected lands. But the work wears on him more and more and he feels increasing anxiety. Viktor Israel Strand is an artist and filmmaker who took his master's in liberal arts at Malmö Art Academy in 2022. His videos have been shown at, among others, Gothenburg Film Festival, Flimmer and Pixel.
