09/11/2022 - A jam-packed, three-day roster of new projects, industry insights and networking will unspool at Sweden’s main autumnal festival

From 15-17 November, the Stockholm International Film Festival (see the main line-up news) will present 21 works in progress at the 2022 edition of its Industry Days programme, with an elaborate spotlight trained on Ukraine. Under the headline “Focus Ukraine”, the festival will home in on current aspects at hand, including cultural policies in times of war and distribution support, supplemented by a grant initiative aiming to reach a wider audience across Sweden and increase the diversity of the national cinema scene. The agenda includes panel discussions and interviews, both physically and digitally, inviting filmmakers, politicians, diplomats and reporters to the table.

Ten Ukrainian work-in-progress presentations are also on the schedule, chosen from over 100 applications in collaboration with the Odesa International Film Festival, ranging from topical to timeless, and from mystical sci-fi drama to late-1980s/early-1990s fall-of-the-Wall narrative. The former is depicted in high-contrast black and white in Simon Mozgovyi’s Chrysanthemum Day, the latter in dreamy colour in Tonia Novabrova’s coming-of-age drama Do You Love Me? and in Oleksii Komarovskyi’s political detective sport-drama Dangerous Game, directly inspired by FC Dynamo Kyiv’s 1986 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup victory – a rough showdown not just against the opponent, finalist Atlético Madrid, but also against the KGB, intent on stopping Ukraine from becoming champions. The drama of Sergii Masloboishchykov’s Yasa stems from the 2014 Maidan Revolution, while Dmytro Hreshko’s documentary Divia deals with the environmental state of Ukrainian soil in the age of urbanisation. It should be an intriguing, forceful line-up, by the sound of things.

Among the assorted Nordic projects, Norwegian veteran Niels Gaup’s 1930s drama The Riot [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is in attendance, as is the Swedish-Chinese effort Hello Beijing by acclaimed still photographer and documentarian Tora Mkandawire Mårtens. In Anything for Her, a Faroe Islands production, director Andrias Høgenni takes the viewer to a local wedding: the film, we’re told, deals with everyone else besides the bride and groom. Six hand-picked contenders round off the New Voices of Swedish Cinema section, tackling historical events, as in Inga Kempe’s Berta, the story of Sweden’s first female bus driver, as well as highly current ones, like Nanna Blondell’s Skin to Skin, a contemporary close-up on ethnic identity, right in the midst of the sunniest of Swedish summer settings.

The full programme can be consulted here.

Here is the full list of work-in-progress projects:

Chrysanthemum Day – Simon Mozgovyi (Ukraine)
Producers: Alex Chepiga, Artem Koliubaiev (Mainstream Pictures LLC)

Do You Love Me? – Tonia Novabrova (Ukraine)
Producers: Anastasiia Bukovska, Danylo Kaptyukh (Family Production)

The Glass House – Taras Dron (Ukraine)
Producers: Igor Savychenko, Valeria Sochyvets, Taras Dron (Directory Films)

Yasa – Sergii Masloboishchykov (Ukraine)
Producer: Oleksii Moskalenko (mental dRive studio)

Dangerous Game – Oleksii Komarovskyi (Ukraine)
Producers: Oleksii Komarovskyi, Sergiy Salomatin (IDEAFILMS)

Diagnosis: Dissident – Denys Tarasov (Ukraine)
Producers: Artem Kolyubaev, Taras Bosak, Valeria Ivanenko (Joint Victory Production)

Fucking Sensitivity – Tetiana Symon (Ukraine)
Producer: Alexandra Bratyshchenko (Eleron Pictures)

Divia – Dmytro Hreshko (Ukraine)
Producer: Polina Herman (UP UA Studio)

Pride Is Not Available in Your Region – Maksym Nakonechnyi (Ukraine)
Producers: Yuriy Dvizhon, Oleksii (Ljosha) Chashchyn, Anastasiia Alieksieieva (Magnit Production)

Forever, Forever [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anna Buryachkova
film profile] – Anna Buryachkova (Ukraine/Netherlands)
Producers: Natalia Libet, Vitalii Sheremetiev (Digital Religion (DGTL RLGN) LLC)

Hello Beijing – Tora Mkandawire Mårtens (Sweden/China)
Producers: Tora Mkandawire Mårtens, Kalle Boman (Neo Publishing)

Stone Life – Gunhild Enger (Norway)
Producer: Håkon Øverås (4 1/2 Fiction)

Anything for Her – Andrias Høgenni (Faroe Islands)
Producers: Rikke Tambo Andersen, Johannes Rothaus Nørregaard (Tambo Film)

My French Revolution – Hanna Högstedt (Sweden)
Producers: Ami-Ro Sköld, Lovisa Charlier (Onoma Productions AB)

The Riot [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – Nils Gaup (Norway)
Producers: Tom Vidar Karlsen, Trond Eliassen, Christer Nilsson, Einar Loftesnes (Storyline NOR AS)

Skin to Skin – Nanna Blondell (Sweden)
Producer: Siri Hjorton Wagner (Sic Film)

The Blowfish – Elin Övergaard (Sweden)
Producer: Charlotte Most (MostAlice)

My Best Friend’s Baby – Sophie Vukovic (Sweden)
Producers: Eliza Jones, Markus Walta (Grand Slam Film)

Where the Road Ends – Jacqueline Holst (Sweden)
Producer: Saša Holst (Rumblewood AB)

Kurt & Vanja – Andreas Nordblom (Sweden)
Producer: Andreas Nordblom (Hjärta Nikki)

Berta – Inga Kempe (Sweden)
Producer: Pontus Wicksell (aCat Filmproduktion)