14/09/2015 - The Swedish writer-director’s second film joins Sweden’s most jam-packed package ever for the Toronto International Film Festival

Swedish writer-director Alexandra-Therese Keining’s second film, Girls Lost [+see also:
trailer
film profile], will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival as Sweden’s fourth feature entry in the official programme, an all-time record.

The latest title from veteran Swedish producer Christer Nilson’s Göta Film – which co-produced German director Wim Wenders’ Every Thing Will Be Fine [+see also:
film review
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making of
film profile] and Dutch director Joost van Ginkel’s The Paradise Suite [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], both at the festival – Girls Lost is the story of three girls who find a magical flower that temporarily turns them into boys. One of the girls is lured further and further into the boys’ world, as her friends struggle to decipher their new reality. 

“Gender fluidity seems to be one of the major themes at Toronto this year, although with very different takes,” Nilson remarked. Scripted by Keining from Swedish author Jessica Schiefauer’s award-winning novel, Girls Lost was produced by Helena and Olle Wirenhed, and will be presented in the Contemporary World Cinema section. The Yellow Affair handles international sales. 

Sanna Lenken’s feature debut, My Skinny Sister [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sanna Lenken
film profile], is about 12-year-old Stella, who has always compared herself to her perfect elder sister, a talented figure skater. When she realises that her sibling is not all that perfect, her life begins to fall apart. The Annika Rogell production for Story Film, which was also screened at Cannes, is on show in the TIFF Kids selection.

Magnus von Horn’s first feature, The Here After [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Magnus von Horn
film profile], stars Swedish pop artist Ulrik Munther in his first film role as a 17-year-old boy returning home from prison, looking forward to starting afresh, but his local community has neither forgotten nor forgiven his crime. Zentropa Sweden’s Madeleine Ekman and Mariusz Wlodarski, of Poland’s Lava Films, produced the Discovery entry. 

Granny’s Dancing on the Table [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the second feature by Hanna Sköld, is about a 13-year-old girl who grows up with a violent father, isolated from society, almost losing her sense of self – still, she is capable of creating a world within, from which she can draw the strength to survive. DoDream’s Helene Granqvist and Klara Björk staged the Contemporary World Cinema screener.

Sweden’s Toronto package is topped off by Caroline Ingvarsson’s Beneath the Spaceship, about a teenage girl and her friendship with an older man, produced by Caroline Drab and competing in the Short Cuts sidebar.