05/01/2007

Swedish production outfit Filmkreatörerna, with offices at Trollhättan’s film production centre and in Stockholm, has teamed up with Latvian co-producer Memais Sovs on Karin Hård’s first feature film Whistleblower.

The ten year-old Filmkreatörerna, which produced the directorial debuts of actor Rafael Edholm (Completely Mad) and Miko Lazic (Made in Yugoslavia) in 2005, is very keen to make films in close cooperation with directors and scriptwriters.

Klara Björk, producer and co-managing director of Filmkreatörerna, has spent the last couple of years working hand in hand with Hård on her feature debut, after having produced her short film The Library with co-financing from Film I Väst. According to Björk, Whistleblower will be “a very personal story”

Before studying filmmaking at Stockholm’s Dramatiska Institutet, Hård worked as a veterinarian in the meat processing industry and Whistleblower will be based on her own experiences. Described as a political drama set in the idyllic Swedish countryside, the film will focus on Miriam, a young veterinarian whose first job is as an abattoir supervisor. There, she discovers that the animals suffer unacceptably by veterinary standards and finds herself alone in facing the abattoir’s men.

“It will be very much likeErin Brockovich, the story of a woman who speaks up in a hostile environment”, Björk told Cineuropa.

With the development of the project well financed by the MEDIA Programme and the Swedish Film Institute, the producer attended the MEDIA Programme EAVE initiative in 2006, where she met her Latvian co-producer, then the Baltic Event in Tallinn in early December. “All networking is essential, and for us in Sweden it is a good thing to go east to look for new partners. We have a lot in common with people from the Baltics”, she said.

Whistleblower will be shot in Sweden in 2007 with a Latvian/Swedish cast. Co-financiers involved so far include Film I Väst and the SFI.