09/12/2013 - The first film to win the Stockholm International Film Festival’s €500,000 scholarship for new women film-makers, Sofia Norlin's feature debut will compete at the Berlinale

Sofia Norlin's Tenderness (aka Broken Hill Blues) is the first Swedish selection for competition at the 64^th Berlinale (February 6-16) – Norlin’s feature debut will screen in the Generation 14plus for young audiences.

Launched domestically last week (December 6) by Sweden’s NonStop Entertainment, the Olivier Guerpillon production for Digital Filmmakersis the first winner of the Stockholm International Film Festival’s scholarship for new women film-makers, which comes with €500,000 cash and services, and a Nordic-Baltic distribution contract with Sweden's NonStop Entertainment.

Scipted by Norlin, starring Sebastian Hiort af Ornäs and Lina Leandersson, Tenderness is a depiction of four young people in Kiruna, Sweden's northernmost city: their dreams of the future, their first steps towards building a new society, while the ground is literally shaking under their feet. Kiruna is situated on a mine, which is its pounding centre as well as a force threatening to tear it apart.

“It is incredibly funny to put the focus on Kiruna at an international film festival – Kiruna, which plays a crucial part in the film, and where the residents have supported us all the way through the process. I am extremely grateful,” said Norlin, a film student from Paris and Stockholm, who has previously directed a 30-minute The Currents (2005), for France 2 and Swedish pubcaster SVT.

A frequent participant in the Generation 14plus competition, Sweden received a Special Mention for Lisa Aschan’s She Monkeys [+see also:
trailer
interview: Lisa Aschan
film profile] (2011). Babak Najafi’s Sebbe [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the screen debut of Tenderness’ star Hiort af Ornäs, won the Best First Feature in 2011.