For the first time ever, a Swedish film opens the Stockholm film festival. Josef Fares latest film Leo will have its world premiere at the 18th international film festival, which takes place November 15-25. Leo celebrates his 30th birthday. Surrounded by family and friends, he toasts to the future. But as the party ends and Leo and his girlfriend walk back home, something happens which will forever change their lives. After great success with Jalla! Jalla! (2000), Kops (2003) and Zozo (2005), Sw...
The winners of the Guldbagge - Gold Beetle awards were announced last night at a ceremony at the Göteborg Opera House. Feature film debutant Lena Einhorn won the highest award for Best Film - Nina's Journey, a survival story about her mother who lived in the Warsaw ghetto during WWII and traveled from Poland to Sweden. Einhorn who also took home the best screenplay award was chosen over the expected winners: Mouth to Mouth, Björn Runge and Zozo-Josef Fares.Best Picture Ninas resa / Nina’s ...
The Göteborg Film Festival, now in its 29th year will be held 26th January to 4th of February, becoming the Nordic film branch headquarters for ten days. The festival head is the esteemed film critic Jannike Åhlund who has been active for nearly three decades on the Swedish film scene and a member of the Un Certain Regard jury at Cannes 2003. The festival is both a public forum as well as a branch meeting place with 450 features, shorts, and documentaries from 60 countries.George Clooney’s ...
It's fairly unusual at a film festival with umpteen titles to pick from that one selects three names out of a hat, and all three turn out to be not only winners, back to back, but films of quality ranging from excellent to astounding. Today's triple winning ticket: "ZOZO" from Norway by way of Beirut, "Fratricide" Brudermord) -- astounding turf battle between Turks and Kurds in a German city, and "Bashing", a hypnotic Kafkaesque look at life on Desolation Row in a northern Japanese industrial w...
Stockholm is Tarantino's! (or is it Josef Fares?)The Stockholm International Film Festival kicked off November 13 with Kill Bill Volume 1 and its world class female assassins. Festival organizer Git Scheynius greeted the completely packed Skandia theater to introduce a festival of 200 films and 70 directors."Quentin Tarantino couldn't come", she said, "but he sends his greetings", adding that 30 pages of the Kill Bill script were written in Stockholm (as were parts of Pulp Fiction). Indeed, the ...