Anyone for tennis? Sweden’s Avalon takes Toronto Discovery prize
Swedish director Axel Petersén’s feature debut, Avalon [+see also:
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The FIPRESCI award is presented to a first feature in the section of 25 international entries. ”An assured, darkly humorous portrait of an affluent class in hedonistic self-denial, this film marks the arrival of a promising new voice in Swedish filmmaking,” the jury declared.
”Wow, I am blushing,” said Petersén, who came to Toronto directly from Venice, where his short, The Tracks of My Tears 2, was premiered in the festival’s Orizzonti sidebar. Avalon will be domestically released by Nordisk Film in early 2012; TrustNordisk handles foreign sales.
Set during the Swedish Open tennis tournament in Båstad, Petersén’s original story is ”a tender portrait of the first generation of teenagers, born in the 1940s, and now in their 60s.” One of them, Janne, a former club promoter, has just served time with an ankle bracelet.
He arrives to Båstad to open a new exclusive night club, hanging out with his sister as a soon-to-be-crowned king of local night life during the last week of final preparations, when he causes a disastrous accident, dragging him into a downward spiral.
Starring Johannes Brost, Peter Carlberg and Léonora Ekstrand, Avalon was produced by Erika Wasserman and Jesper Kurlandsky for Idyll/Fasad, in collaboration with Swedish regional film centre, Film i Väst, and Swedish public broadcaster SVT.
A graduate from the Czech film school FAMU, adding studies at the Swedish Royal Academy of the Arts, Petersen is well-known for his horts as well as his art projects. A Good Friend of Mr World (2010) was nominated for a Guldbagge, Sweden’s national film prize.
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