This Is Not Sweden [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Aina Clotet
scheda series], 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 [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], which won an award recently at the Málaga Film Festival), Marcel Borràs (Uncertain Glory [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Agustí Villaronga
scheda film], the series El inmortal [+leggi anche:
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making of
scheda series]), Nora Navas (who recently scooped a second Goya Award for Libertad [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Clara Roquet
scheda film], and who appeared in Stories Not to Be Told [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Cesc Gay
scheda film]), Enric Auquer (Eye for an Eye [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Paco Plaza
scheda film], Two Many Chefs [+leggi anche:
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scheda 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 [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], We All Want What’s Best for Her [+leggi anche:
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scheda 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 [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], a movie starring Clotet.

The screenplay – penned by Valentina Viso (The Volunteer [+leggi anche:
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scheda film]) and Dani González (Donde caben dos [+leggi anche:
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scheda 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.