The documentary The Extaordinary Ordinary Life of José Gonzalez by Fredrik Egerstrand and Mikel Cee Karlssons opens the 33:rd Göteborg International Film Festival and is the first film in the Nordic Competition. 

With a combination of video diary, surveillance camera, concert and tour footage as well as animations the filmmakers Mikel Cee Karlsson and Fredrik Egerstrand have followed one of Swedens most interesting artists - José Gonzalez.

- It is a fantastic film. Not only a portrait of one of Swedens finest artists but also a successful attempt to portray the creative process which turns it in to a forceful defence of the beauty of art and the people creating it, says Festival Director Marit Kapla.

The Extraordinary Ordinary Life of José Gonzalez is produced by Plattform Produktion and opens the 33:rd Göteborg International Film Festival on Friday January 29 at the Draken Cinema. It will be preceded by Tussilago by Jonas Odell, competing for the short film award The Synchleader.

Mikel Cee Karlsson was born in 1977 in Varberg, Sweden and graduated from The School of Film Directing in Göteborg in 2005. He has directed award winning shorts and a number of highly acclaimed music videos for artists like Fever Ray, Bonde do Role and José González. Mikel was also one of Swedens best skateboarders in the late 90 s. His first feature film, the documentary Greetings from the woods premiered in 2009 at GIFF and was in competition at Locarno International Film Festival.

Fredrik Egerstrand was born in 1967 in Alingsås, Sweden. He worked as an actor for eleven years before buying his first video camera. He started to make films for theatre, opera, ballet and numerous music videos. He graduated from Valand Shool of fine arts in 2000 and has produced and directed several shorts and a number of concert programs for Swedish Television.

This year's Closing film will be the Estonian The Temptations of St Tony by Veiko Ounpuu, who in 2007 was awarded in Venice for the amazing Autumn Ball. The Temptations of St Tony is a challenging and visually expressive film about a man who has reached middle age and finds himself exactly in the kind of dark forest which Dante describes. The film will have its international premiere parallelly in Göteborg and Sundance, where it is screened in competition.
The Temptations of St Tony is co-produced by Swedish company Atmo and will be screened Saturday, February 6 at the Draken Cinema. Find out more about the film here.