26/01/2026 - The Swedish filmmaker tells us about the creation of his thriller, which uses its small scale to its advantage

(© Emanuele Bergquist/Tromsø International Film Festival)

Jonas Lawes’ The Watchmaker [+see also:
film review
interview: Jonas Lawes
film profile] opened the flagship Films from the North sidebar of the 36th Tromsø International Film Festival, a strand that brings both acclaimed and lesser-seen works directly to audiences in the eponymous Norwegian Arctic city. In this debut feature, two young men are forced to seek the help of a quiet watchmaker to fix a priceless watch they stole, only for events to go awry. After the world premiere of the film at the festival, Cineuropa had the opportunity to sit down with the director/co-writer to learn more about the creation of this thriller, which uses its small scale to its advantage.

Cineuropa: The movie is set in Stockholm, but it has a very intimate, small-town energy, especially coupled with the chamber-play style that sets the action almost entirely in the titular watchmaker’s shop. It feels a bit like a stage play, in a good way. Was this practical, stylistic or both?
Jonas Lawes: I went to a drama school in the south of Sweden, close to Malmö, and there, they told us there were loads of locations and opportunities. However, if you don’t have an in, it’s like you don’t know where to start. But in Västerbotten [a province of northern Sweden], it feels like people know each other and want to help out.

I feel like making a film in a smaller town is easier. When we set out to make this movie, we knew that one of the first things we wanted was to make a film shot mainly in one location. It seems more manageable, on one hand, but there are also many movies I really love that are set in one location – like 12 Angry Men. Getting that right can be something beautiful because it’s not a limitation; it adds a layer of claustrophobia, which I find it interesting to play with.

The film is set in the 1960s – specifically, February 1968. There seems to be a lot of attention around this choice in particular.
When we started to write it, we knew we didn’t want it to be set in modern times. Eventually, we landed on 1968 by process of elimination. I love the costumes and there not being any [mobile] phones. The cinematographer, Niklas [Åkerlund], and I started out by walking around Skellefteå, trying to figure out where we could shoot it if we weren’t to build it. But there were a lot of things that made it really hard – we would have had to clear the street outside, and we could only do night shoots. Then, we found an old theatre where I worked as an actor back in the day. The theatre’s moved from there, so it was just this big, empty studio. So we said, “Let’s build [a set].”

Your biography says you started out as an actor but quickly found an interest in directing. Could you talk about your transition from actor to director?
When I was young, I knew that making films was something I wanted to be a part of, but the only word in my vocabulary at eight or ten years old was “acting”. I didn’t know that you actually “made” movies, even though I knew there were actors. Some jobs you just don’t really reflect upon. I went down the acting route and really enjoyed that for a while. Then, I got into a school where all of my classmates were up all night. They were writing monologues and applying for other schools. I thought this passion was amazing, but I didn’t have that. I realised that being behind the camera and working with actors was what I felt like I was good at. I really enjoyed working things out – directing is just like solving a problem. How do we get there? Being an actor and being a director are very similar, but it’s like being on the other side.

From this perspective of problem-solving, how did you secure the funding for your film? What did the production side look like?
Niklas and I have a production company [Seize the Frame], with which we do adverts. One of our clients is Latitude 64, which makes disc-golf products. One of the guys who brought us there said, “I really like what you do, and I trust you and your vision.” That was almost unheard of for us. We did a few adverts, and then a few years later, which is about one-and-a-half years ago, this man called David Berglund says, “Hi Jonas, I remember you said that you wanted to make a feature.” [I was thinking], “Yeah, sure, like that’s going to happen.” But then a week later, we talked more, and then every day, and then I realised that we were actually going to do this.

David [for production company Blue Snow] is the primary investor. Film i Västerbotten has also come in, and they’ve always supported me on my short films. But David has gone in with all the risk, so it’s also really special to have someone who’s put their trust in us. I’m really proud of this thing that started 13 months ago with a low budget. I’ve been surrounded by people who’ve just wanted the best for the project and for me.