21/07/2015 - After adapting Strindberg in Julie (2013), Swedish actress-turned-director Helena Bergström celebrates a festive feast with an unusual family

Director Helena Bergström (right) with actors Maria Lundqvist and Robert Gustafsson

How tolerant is the tolerant Swede, really? Swedish actress-turned-director Helena Bergström asks this question in A Holy Mess [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - her fourth feature - which has just wrapped principal photography in Stockholm.

Having most recently delivered an August Strindberg adaptation, Julie [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2013), she has now joined forces with Edward af Sillén and Daniel Réhn to write the script for “a warm drama-comedy about the modern family and its constant struggle to do the right thing”.

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Simon and Oscar, both 27, have bought a house with their friend Cissi. The place needs renovating, but one room has priority: the nursery. The three of them are starting a family, as Cissi is nine months pregnant. But who is the father? Simon or Oscar? For almost a year, they have postponed revealing the secret to their own families, but now they cannot wait any longer. And what time could be more perfect than Christmas Eve: the celebration of tolerance, the day when everybody must love and be kind to one another?

The cast for A Holy Mess includes Anastasios Soulis, Anton Lundqvist and Rakel Wärmländer as the lead trio, along with Maria Lundqvist, Robert Gustafsson, Michalis Koutsogiannakis, Inga Landré and Bergström herself.

Swedish producer Petra Jönsson has handled the project for Sweetwater, in collaboration with Svensk Filmindustri (SF), Swedish public broadcaster SVT, Nouvago Capital, RG Production and Succéfilm. SF will be in charge of the domestic release this winter.