20/11/2015 - Helena Bergström’s fourth feature – a comedy starring Robert Gustafsson, Maria Lundqvist and Anastasios Soulis – has recorded the best opening of a local film in 2015

Swedish actress-writer-director Helena Bergström’s A Holy Mess [+see also:
trailer
film profile] arrived in advance of Christmas (it premiered on 13 November), but it still registered the best weekend opening of a local film this year, taking 77,736 admissions in 247 cinemas.

“It’s amazing that it has already reached and touched such a large audience. I wanted to tell a story of our time that would spread hope and love, and the reception shows that it probably worked,” said Bergström.

A Holy Mess is about two young men, Simon and Oscar, both in their 20s, who have been a couple for three years. Together with their girlfriend, Cissi, they have bought a house in Bromma, outside Stockholm. One room has top priority: the nursery, because Cissi is nine months pregnant. But who is the father – Simon or Oscar? Nevertheless, come what may, they are going to start a family. They haven’t revealed the secret to their families yet, but they realise that they cannot keep it hidden anymore, and what time could be better to disclose the truth than Christmas night – the feast of tolerance, the day when everybody loves one another and is pleasant to each other, the birthday of Jesus.

An award-winning actress on stage and screen, Bergström wrote and directed her first feature, Mind the Gap [+see also:
trailer
film profile], in 2007; most recently, she made Julie [+see also:
trailer
film profile], based on August Strindberg’s classic Miss Julie, in 2013. She co-wrote her fourth film with Edward af Sillén and Daniel Réhn.

Swedish actors Robert Gustafsson, Maria Lundqvist and Anastasios Soulis play the leads in the comedy about modern family life – and how tolerant Swedish society actually is. Petra Jönsson produced the film for Sweetwater Production, and Svensk Filmindustri is handling local distribution.