Small is beautiful: Little Film Festival honours Jan Troell
Swedish director Jan Troell, who celebrated his 80th birthday on July 23, will be honoured by Sweden’s smallest showcase – the Little Film Festival in Båstad, which takes place from August 2-8.
Otherwise known for its Swedish Open tennis tournament, the little town with a 5,000 population has organised the festival at the 80-seat Scala Bio since 1996, when it was instigated by Swedish director Bo Widerberg.
This year the selection includes 36 films, including sneak previews of new local productions and a silent-cum-orchestra screening of Russian director Sergei Eisenstein’s The Battleship Potemkin.
The August 5 programme is devoted to Troell, with Ole dole doff (which won five prizes, including the Golden Bear, at the Berlin International Festival), also being screened as a tribute to its lead actor Per Oscarsson, who died recently.
There will be an early show of Kalla ingenting för sent (Don’t Call Anything Too Late), a portrait of Swedish poet Jacques Werup, which Troell has just completed with Jan Hemmel and Olle Tannergaard.
And more Troell: his wife Agneta Ulfsäter Troell will present excerpts of Med fötterna på jorden (With Feet on the Ground) which is now in production, and her daughter Yohanna will be shooting sections from her new film Story.
During summer the director, who has won five Guldbaggar (Sweden’s national film prize) – more than any other filmmaker – has also been honoured by Swedish public broadcaster SVT, which has broadcast several of his films.
His latest, Truth and Consequence, is about Swedish publicist and editor Torgny Segerstedt, who opposed Hitler and Nazi Germany. Starring Jesper Christensen and Pernilla August, it will open on October 12.
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