04/09/2012 - Swedish director Maximilian Hult follows Oblivion and Noah on locations in Iceland, where state incentives, longer shooting days and less travel have cut the budget by almost a third

With major US productions Oblivion, starring Tom Cruise, and Noah, with Russell Crowe, filming in Icelandic locations, Swedish production companies Little Big and Spellbound Productions have shot At Home, the first Swedish-language feature almost entirely lensed on the North Atlantic-Arctic Ocean island since 1954.

By letting a small coastal town outside Reykjavik stand in for the Swedish province and moving the production up north, Swedish producers Anna G. Magnúsdóttir and Anders Granström cut their budget by almost a third, and saved around €700,000.

According to head of film in Iceland, film commissioner Einar Hansen Tomasson, the country is this year about to set a new record in servicing international film productions, which are mainly lured by the government's rebate for foreign producers: 20% of production costs spent in Iceland will be reimbursed.

But the Swedish producers also benefited from the longer shooting days – in Iceland, normal work days on a film set are 12 hours – and shorter travelling distances; this way, they reduced the original six-week schedule by a week.

The feature debut of Swedish director Maximilian Hult (photo), who also wrote the script, At Home stars Moa Gammel, Lia Boysen, Anita Wall, Lars Lind, Simon J Berger, Erik Lundqvist and Elin Petersdottir in the story of Lou, who lives in the big city with her mother, who is her only family – or so she thinks.

So it comes as a shock to her when she learns that her grandparents have always been around, and now her grandfather has died. Lou moves in with her grandmother, and within shortly her life has totally changed – what does 'at home' really mean?