This Is Not Sweden [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Aina Clotet
fiche série], a series created by actress Aina Clotet and filmmaker Sergi Cameron (When You Listen), is currently being filmed (for a total of 13 weeks, wrapping next month) in Barcelona, El Prat and El Penedès. It stars Clotet herself (who will grace screens shortly in The Enchanted [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film], which won an award recently at the Málaga Film Festival), Marcel Borràs (Uncertain Glory [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Agustí Villaronga
fiche film], the series El inmortal [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
making of
fiche série]), Nora Navas (who recently scooped a second Goya Award for Libertad [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Clara Roquet
fiche film], and who appeared in Stories Not to Be Told [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Cesc Gay
fiche film]), Enric Auquer (Eye for an Eye [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Paco Plaza
fiche film], Two Many Chefs [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film]), Tomás del Estal, Liv Mjönes, Ia Langhammer, Mabel Rivera, Nausicaa Bonnín and newcomer Violeta Sanvicens.

Over eight episodes, each lasting 40 minutes (featuring dialogue in Spanish, Catalan, English and Swedish), the show will adopt a comedy-drama tone as it tells of a couple and the contradictions they encounter while trying to protect their children from life’s perils. It is being directed by Aina Clotet (who made her directorial debut in 2015 with the short film Tiger, toplined by Marcel Borràs and herself), Mar Coll (Three Days with the Family [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film], We All Want What’s Best for Her [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film] and the miniseries Killing the Father), Celia Giraldo and Sara Fantova: both of the latter, together with other fellow students from the ESCAC, helmed La filla d’algú [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film], a movie starring Clotet.

The screenplay – penned by Valentina Viso (The Volunteer [+lire aussi :
critique
fiche film]) and Dani González (Donde caben dos [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film]) – portrays how, in order to bring up their daughters from a more sincere place that is a far cry from their respective and painful childhoods, Mariana (played by Clotet) and Samuel (Borràs) relocate to a neighbourhood in the mountains near Barcelona, where they find other residents with the same aspirations. However, when tragedy strikes in the community, shattering everyone’s ideals, the couple’s convictions start to waver and fear creeps into the relationship, bringing them dangerously close to the very thing they were trying to keep their distance from.

According to Clotet, “This series was born of a personal need: during motherhood, my life was turned upside down, and nobody had warned me about it beforehand. One day, together with other families in the neighbourhood, we decided to create a parental support group, headed up by a specialist psychologist, in order to be able to share our roller-coaster of new, unknown emotions. From that starting point, we began to envisage this series, placing upbringing at the centre of it and aiming to explore how fear can turn you into the worst version of yourself.”

This Is Not Sweden is being produced by Spanish outfits Funicular Films and Nanouk Films together with Sweden’s Anagram Produktion for Spanish channels RTVE and TV3, Sweden’s SVT, Germany’s NDR and Finland’s YLE. It has secured support from ICEC and MEDIA. The series was presented with the Conecta Fiction Best Pitch Award at the Göteborg Film Festival, and has taken part in development labs such as Torino TFL Next TV Series and the producers’ workshop at IFFR.