Selma Lagerlöf
Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf was a Swedish author and teacher. She published her first novel, Gösta Berling's Saga, at the age of 33, she was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, which she was awarded in 1909. Additionally, she was the first female to be granted a membership in The Swedish Academy in 1914. Born at Mårbacka an estate in Värmland in western Sweden, Lagerlöf was the daughter of Erik Gustaf Lagerlöf, a lieutenant in the Royal Värmland Regiment, Louise Lagerlöf née Wallroth, whose father was a well-to-do merchant and a foundry owner. Lagerlöf was the couple's fifth child out of six, she was born with a hip injury, caused by detachment in the hip joint. At the age of three and a half, a sickness left her lame in both legs, although she recovered, she was a quiet child, more serious than others her age, with a deep love for reading. She was writing poetry as a child, but did not publish anything until in life, her grandmother helped raise her telling stories of fairytales and fantasy.
Growing up, she was plain and lame, an account stated that the cross-country wanderings of the majoress and Elisabet in The Saga of Gosta Berling could be the author's compensatory fantasies. As many other children of the upper class, the children of the family received their education at home, since the Volksschule system, compulsory education system, was not developed yet, their teacher thus came to Mårbacka and the children received education in English, as well as French. Selma finished reading her first novel at the age of seven; the novel was Osceola by Thomas Mayne Reid. After completing the novel, Selma is said to have decided on becoming an author. At the age of 10, 1868, Selma completed reading the Bible. At this time her father was ill, she hoped that God would heal her father if she read the Bible from cover to cover, her father lived for another 17 years. In this manner, Selma Lagerlöf became accustomed to the language of Scripture from an early age; the sale of Mårbacka following her father's illness in 1884 had a serious impact on her development.
Selma's father is said to have been an alcoholic, something she discussed. Her father did not want Selma to continue an education, or remain involved with the women's movement. In life, she would buy back her father's estate with the money she received for her Nobel Prize. Lagerlöf lived there for the rest of her life, she completed her studies at the Royal Seminary to become a teacher the same year as her father passed away. Lagerlöf was educated at the Högre lärarinneseminariet in Stockholm from 1882 to 1885, she worked as a country schoolteacher at a high school for girls in Landskrona from 1885 to 1895, while honing her story-telling skills, with particular focus on the legends she had learned as a child. She appreciated her students, she had a talent for capturing the children's attention through telling them stories about the different countries about which they were studying or stories about Jesus and his disciples. During this period of her life, Selma lived with her aunt Lovisa Lagerlöf.
Through her studies at the Royal Women's Superior Training Academy in Stockholm, Lagerlöf reacted against the realism of contemporary Swedish-language writers such as August Strindberg. She began Gösta Berling's Saga, while working as a teacher in Landskrona, her first break as a writer came when she submitted the first chapters to a literary contest in the magazine Idun, won a publishing contract for the whole book. At first, her writing only received mild reviews from critics. Once a popular male critic, George Brandes, gave her positive reviews of the Danish translation, her popularity soared, she received financial support of Fredrika Limnell, who wished to enable her to concentrate on her writing. In 1894, she met the Swedish writer Sophie Elkan, who became her friend and companion.. Over many years and Lagerlöf critiqued each other's work. Lagerlöf wrote that Elkan influenced her work and that she disagreed with the direction Lagerlöf wanted to take in her books. Selma's letters to Sophie were published in 1993, titled Du lär mig att bli fri.
A visit in 1900 to the American Colony in Jerusalem became the inspiration for Lagerlöf's book by that name. The royal family and the Swedish Academy gave her substantial financial support to continue her passion. Jerusalem was acclaimed by critics, who began comparing her to Homer and Shakespeare, so that she became a popular figure both in Sweden and abroad. By 1895, she gave up her teaching to devote herself to her writing. With the help of proceeds from Gösta Berlings Saga and a scholarship and grant, she made two journals, which were instrumental in providing material for her next novel. With Elkan, she traveled to Italy, she traveled to Palestine and other parts of the East. In Italy, a legend of a Christ Child figure, replaced with a false version inspired Lagerlöf's novel Antikrists mirakler. Set in Sicily, the novel explores the interplay between socialist moral systems. However, most of Lagerlöf's stories were set in Värmland. In 1902, Lagerlöf was asked by the National Teacher's Association to write a geography book for children.
She wrote Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige, a novel about a boy from the southernmost part of Sweden, shrunk to the size of a thumb and who travelled on the back of a goose across the country. Lagerlöf mixed historical and geographical facts about the p
Swedish Film Institute
The Swedish Film Institute was founded in 1963 to support and develop the Swedish film industry. The institute is housed in the Filmhuset building located in Östermalm in Stockholm; the building, completed in 1970, was designed by architect Peter Celsing. The Swedish Film Institute supports Swedish filmmaking and allocates grants for production and public showing of Swedish films in Sweden, it promotes Swedish cinema internationally. Furthermore, the Institute organises the annual Guldbagge Awards; the Swedish Film Database is published by the institute. Through the Swedish Film Agreement, between the Swedish state and the film and media industry, the Government of Sweden, the TV companies which were party to the agreement, Sweden's cinema owners jointly fund the Film Institute and thus, Swedish filmmaking; the agreement ran from January 1, 2006, until December 31, 2012. The building contains a large film archive and two theatres, named after Victor Sjöström and Mauritz Stiller, which arrange screenings of classic films.
1963–1970 Harry Schein 1970–1972 Bo Jonsson 1972–1978 Harry Schein 1978–1982 Jörn Donner 1982–1989 Klas Olofsson 1989–1994 Ingrid Edström 1994–1998 Lars Engqvist 1998–1999 Hans Ottosson 1999–2006 Åse Kleveland 2006–2010 Cissi Elwin Frenkel 2010–2011 Bengt Toll 2011–present Anna Serner 1963–1967 Krister Wickman 1967–1970 Roland Pålsson 1970–1978 Harry Schein 1978–1981 Per Ahlmark 1981–1984 Bert Levin 1984–1992 Hans Löwbeer 1992–1999 Åke Ahrsjö 1999–2005 Lisa Söderberg 2005–2011 Håkan Tidlund 2012–2014 Göran K Johansson 2015–present Claes Ånstrand Trollywood Finnish Film Foundation American Film Institute ACE – Association of European Film Archives and Cinematheques The Swedish Film Institute
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, has a population of 570,000 in the city center and about 1 million inhabitants in the metropolitan area. Gothenburg was founded as a fortified Dutch, trading colony, by royal charter in 1621 by King Gustavus Adolphus. In addition to the generous privileges given to his Dutch allies from the then-ongoing Thirty Years' War, the king attracted significant numbers of his German and Scottish allies to populate his only town on the western coast. At a key strategic location at the mouth of the Göta älv, where Scandinavia's largest drainage basin enters the sea, the Port of Gothenburg is now the largest port in the Nordic countries. Gothenburg is home to many students, as the city includes the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology. Volvo was founded in Gothenburg in 1927; the original parent Volvo Group and the now separate Volvo Car Corporation are still headquartered on the island of Hisingen in the city.
Other key companies are Astra Zeneca. Gothenburg is served by Göteborg Landvetter Airport 30 km southeast of the city center; the smaller Göteborg City Airport, 15 km from the city center, was closed to regular airline traffic in 2015. The city hosts the Gothia Cup, the world's largest youth football tournament, alongside some of the largest annual events in Scandinavia; the Gothenburg Film Festival, held in January since 1979, is the leading Scandinavian film festival with over 155,000 visitors each year. In summer, a wide variety of music festivals are held in the city, including the popular Way Out West Festival; the city was named Göteborg in the city's charter in 1621 and given the German and English name Gothenburg. The Swedish name was given after the Göta älv, called Göta River in English, other cities ending in -borg. Both the Swedish and German/English names were in use before 1621 and had been used for the previous city founded in 1604 and burned down in 1611. Gothenburg is one of few Swedish cities to still have an official and used exonym.
Another example is the province of Scania in southern Sweden. The city council of 1641 consisted of four Swedish, three Dutch, three German, two Scottish members. In Dutch, Scots and German, all languages with a long history in this trade and maritime-oriented city, the name Gothenburg is or was used for the city. Variations of the official German/English name Gothenburg in the city's 1621 charter existed or exist in many languages; the French form of the city name is Gothembourg, but in French texts, the Swedish name Göteborg is more frequent. "Gothenburg" can be seen in some older English texts. In Spanish and Portuguese the city is called Gotemburgo; these traditional forms are sometimes replaced with the use of the Swedish Göteborg, for example by The Göteborg Opera and the Göteborg Ballet. However, Göteborgs universitet designated as the Göteborg University in English, changed its name to the University of Gothenburg in 2008; the Gothenburg municipality has reverted to the use of the English name in international contexts.
In 2009, the city council launched a new logotype for Gothenburg. Since the name "Göteborg" contains the Swedish letter "ö" the idea was to make the name more international and up to date by "turning" the "ö" sideways; as of 2015, the name is spelled "Go:teborg" on a large number of signs in the city. In the early modern period, the configuration of Sweden's borders made Gothenburg strategically critical as the only Swedish gateway to the North Sea and Atlantic, situated on the west coast in a narrow strip of Swedish territory between Danish Halland in the south and Norwegian Bohuslän in the north. After several failed attempts, Gothenburg was founded in 1621 by King Gustavus Adolphus; the site of the first church built in Gothenburg, subsequently destroyed by Danish invaders, is marked by a stone near the north end of the Älvsborg Bridge in the Färjenäs Park. The church was built in 1603 and destroyed in 1611; the city was influenced by the Dutch and Scots, Dutch planners and engineers were contracted to construct the city as they had the skills needed to drain and build in the marshy areas chosen for the city.
The town was designed like Dutch cities such as Amsterdam and New Amsterdam. The planning of the streets and canals of Gothenburg resembled that of Jakarta, built by the Dutch around the same time; the Dutchmen won political power, it was not until 1652, when the last Dutch politician in the city's council died, that Swedes acquired political power over Gothenburg. During the Dutch period, the town followed Dutch town laws and Dutch was proposed as the official language in the town. Robust city walls were built during the 17th century. In 1807, a decision was made to tear down most of the city's wall; the work started in 1810, was carried out by 150 soldiers from the Bohus regiment. Along with the Dutch, the town was influenced by Scots who settled down in Gothenburg. Many became people of high-profile. William Chalmers, the son of a Scottish immigrant, donated his fortunes to set up what became the Chalmers University of Technology. In 1841, the Scotsman Alexander Keiller founded the Götaverken shipbuilding company, in business until 1989.
His son James Keiller donated Keiller Park to the city in 1906. The Gothenburg coat of arms was based on the lion of the coat of arms of Sweden, symbolically holding a shield w
Halvar Björk
Erik Halvar Bertil Björk was a Swedish actor. He worked at the Malmö City Theatre from 1962 till 1986, but made many substantial film- and TV-roles. Björk won the Best Actor at the 5th Guldbagge Awards for his performance in the Yngve Gamlin film Badarna, he died of lung cancer. The Chasers Badarna Autumn Sonata Önskas Night of the Orangutan Halvar Björk on IMDb
Stellan Skarsgård
Stellan John Skarsgård is a Swedish actor. He is known for his roles as Jan Nyman in Breaking the Waves, Captain Tupolev in The Hunt for Red October, Prof. Gerald Lambeau in Good Will Hunting, Bootstrap Bill Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Bill Anderson in Mamma Mia! and the sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Commander Maximilian Richter in Angels and Demons, Martin Vanger in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Dr. Erik Selvig in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Thor, The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, The Grand Duke in Cinderella. Skarsgård was born in Gothenburg, the son of Gudrun and Jan Skarsgård, he moved in his childhood and lived, amongst other places, in Helsingborg, Kalmar and Uppsala. Skarsgård started his acting career early. Most of his early roles were in Swedish television and films. Of Skarsgård’s work in Swedish film, he is best known for Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg, where he portrays Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who worked to save Holocaust victims.
Skarsgård is associated with director Lars von Trier and has appeared in six of the Danish auteur's features: The Kingdom, Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark, Dogville and Nymphomaniac. His most personal working relationship, however, is with Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland, who has directed the actor in Zero Kelvin, Aberdeen, In Order of Disappearance, A Somewhat Gentle Man. Skarsgård considers Moland a close friend and, in 2009, he said of their relationship: "We're like an old married couple and I get separation anxiety." Another Scandinavian work that he is known for is the 1997 Norwegian film Insomnia, in which he plays the guilt-ridden policeman Jonas Engström. Skarsgård’s first American film was the 1985 film Noon Wine, directed by Michael Fields, in which Skarsgård played a mentally-disturbed immigrant farmhand being chased by a bounty hunter, he acted opposite Fred Ward. In 1990, he starred in another American film, The Hunt for Red October, playing the character of Captain Tupolev, a Soviet submarine commander.
He was considered for the role of Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List. Skarsgård has said that people mistook him for Liam Neeson, who portrayed Schindler in the film, Skarsgård replaced Neeson in the 2004 film Exorcist: The Beginning, he appeared as a guest star on the HBO TV Series Entourage, as Verner Vollstedt, the German director of the fictional film Smokejumpers, who has a bias against the main character Vincent Chase, one of the stars of the film. Skarsgård appeared as Bootstrap Bill Turner in both Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. In 2008, he starred as Bill Anderson in Universal Pictures' Mamma Mia! and reprised the role 10 years in its sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. Skarsgård played Dr. Erik Selvig in Marvel's 2011 film Thor, reprised the role in the 2013 sequel Thor: The Dark World, as well as 2012's The Avengers and 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron. Skarsgård reteamed with Thor director Kenneth Branagh for the 2015 film Cinderella, in which he played The Grand Duke.
On 9 January 2018, it was announced that he will star as the villainous Vladimir Harkonnen in Dennis Villeneuve‘s upcoming Dune adaptation. Skarsgård has appeared in music videos alongside fellow Swedes, he was in Eva Dahlgren's "Vem Tänder stjärnorna" in 2009 and Lykke Li's 2011 music video, "Sadness Is a Blessing". He married My Skarsgård, a physician, in April 1975 and together they had six children: Alexander, Sam, Bill and Valter. Alexander, Gustaf and Valter are actors, while Eija is a former model. Skarsgård and My divorced in May 2007. Stellan married Megan Everett in January 2009; the couple has two sons together Kolbjörn. Skarsgård has had a vasectomy, stating. Actors Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly named their son Stellan after Skarsgård. Skarsgård was brought up by humanist, atheist parents and had an atheist grandfather and a religious grandmother. According to Skarsgård, this never led to any problems because of the family's mutual respect for each other's opinions. After the September 11 attacks, Skarsgård set out to read the Bible and the Quran, both of which he condemns as violent.
Skarsgård is a critic of religious independent schools in the Swedish educational system. Skarsgård has said he considers the notion of God absurd and that if a real God were so vain as to demand worship he would not be worthy of it. In 2009, Skarsgård, along with other non-religious artists and entrepreneurs including Christer Sturmark, Björn Ulvaeus and Christer Fuglesang, wrote an article in Dagens Nyheter stressing the importance of secularity; the group criticised the UN for its stance on blasphemy laws. Stellan Skarsgård on IMDb Stellan Skarsgård at the Swedish Film Database Stellan Skarsgård at Box Office Mojo
Vilhelm Moberg
Karl Artur Vilhelm Moberg was a Swedish journalist, playwright and debater. His literary career, spanning more than 45 years, is associated with his series The Emigrants; the four books, published between 1949 and 1959, deal with the Swedish emigration to the United States in the 19th century, are the subject of two movie adaptations and a musical. Among other works are Raskens and Ride This Night, a historical novel of a 17th-century rebellion in Småland acknowledged for its subliminal but recognised criticism against the Hitler regime. A noted public intellectual and debater in Sweden, he was noted for vocal criticism of the Swedish monarchy, likening it with a servile government by divine mandate, publicly supporting its replacement with a Swiss-style confederal republic, he spoke out aggressively against the policies of Nazi Germany, the Greek military junta, the Soviet Union, his works were among those destroyed in Nazi book burnings. In 1971, he scolded Prime Minister Olof Palme for refusing to offer the Nobel Prize in Literature to its recipient Alexander Solzhenitsyn –, refused permission to attend the ceremony in Stockholm – through the Swedish embassy in Moscow.
Moberg's suicide by self-inflicted drowning drew much attention. He had had a long struggle with writer's block. Karl Artur Vilhelm Moberg was born in 1898 on a farm outside of the town Emmaboda in the Parish of Algutsboda in Småland, in southern Sweden, he was the fourth child of six. His forebears were small farmers, he lived the first nine years of his life at the tenement soldier's cottage in Moshultamåla that his father Karl Moberg, a territorial soldier, took over in 1888. In 1907 the family moved to a small farm in the village of Moshultamåla; this had been the family home of his mother Ida Moberg. Money from her family in America enabled them to buy the property back. Moberg had only limited schooling from 1906 until 1912. However, as a child he was an avid reader. Moberg worked as a farmer and forest laborer, at glassblowing before and between his various studies. In 1916 he nearly emigrated to the United States, following his uncle and aunt, but decided to remain in Sweden with his parents.
Self-educated, Moberg studied at Kronoberg County Folk High School in Grimslöv from 1916 to 1917, at Katrineholms Praktiska Skola, a private school in Katrineholm, from 1917 to 1918. Moberg contracted the Spanish flu in 1918, was sick for half a year. After his illness, Moberg took a position on the newspaper Vadstena Läns Tidning in Östergötland which published many of his stories between 1919 and 1929. In 1926, Moberg made his breakthrough as a playwright when his comedy Kassabrist had a successful run in Stockholm, he published his first novel Raskens the following year. Moberg became a full-time writer when the success of Raskens enabled him to devote himself to writing. Many of his works have been translated into English, he is well-recognized in the English-speaking world among those interested in Scandinavian culture and history. In his autobiographical novel, A Soldier with a Broken Rifle, he speaks to the importance of giving voice to the downtrodden, illiterate classes of his forebears.
This viewpoint formed his History of the Swedish People, I-II, published in 1970-71 in both Swedish and English. He had intended the history to have more volumes; as a playwright, Moberg wrote 38 works for radio. Some were produced as lighter classics of the Swedish stage and television, or were adapted as feature films by directors such as Ingmar Bergman and Alf Sjöberg. Moberg had become a member of a young Social Democrats club in 1913. In his works, he expressed a republican point of view, much due to the facts that surfaced in the Kejne affair and Haijby affair, in which Moberg took an active part. From the 1950s, Moberg participated in debates about the Swedish monarchy and corruption, devoted much time to help individual citizens who had suffered injustice. Much like others of his generation of Swedish authors from a working-class background, such as Ivar Lo-Johansson, Harry Martinson and Moa Martinson, Moberg depicted the life of the dispossessed, their traditions and everyday struggle.
His novels are important documents of social history, trace the influences of various social and political movements in Sweden. Moberg's most famous work is The Emigrants series of four novels, written between 1949 and 1959, that describe one Swedish family's emigration from Småland to Chisago County, Minnesota in the mid-19th century; this was a destiny shared by one million Swedish people, including several of the author's relatives. These novels have been translated into English: The Emigrants, Unto a Good Land, The Settlers, The Last Letter Home, his literary portrayal of the Swedish-American immigrant experience is considered comparable to O. E. Rolvaag's work depicting that of Norwegian-American immigrants. Swedish film director Jan Troell 1971-72 turned the books into two major feature films, The Emigrants and The New Land, starring Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann as Karl Oskar and Kristina; these were nominated for several Academy Awards and The New Land won Golden Globe Awards. The musical Kristina från Duvemåla by ex-ABBA members B
The Man from Majorca
The Man from Majorca is a 1984 Swedish crime thriller film directed by Bo Widerberg. It is based on the novel The Pig Party by Leif G. W. Persson; the film stars Tomas von Brömssen. The plot follows the policemen Bo Jarnebring and Lars Martin Johansson, who are the first police on the scene in a post-office robbery in Stockholm. Shortly after, two persons die and it is clear that these incidents has something to do with the robbery. Meanwhile it seems; the novel has big similarities with the Geijer affair. Leif G. W. Persson lost his job at the police because talking to a journalist about his knowledge about the Geijer case, but denied in the preface of the book which he wrote soon after, that it had any connections to the affair. Widerberg took inspiration from the 1971 American film The French Connection, The Man from Majorca share similarities with his previous thriller film: The Man on the Roof. Sven Wollter won the award for Best Actor at the 20th Guldbagge Awards. A robber calmly holds up a post-office in Stockholm at Saint Lucy's Day 13 December.
The policemen Johansson and Jarnebring are the first on the scene and they chase the robber, who escapes. Shortly after, someone dies in a car accident and a dead body is found at a graveyard. After a while it is clear that these incidents has something to do with the robbery, when the policemen are investigating further, they are beginning to reveal a bigger scandal. Meanwhile it seems. Sven Wollter as Bo Jarnebring: Inspector on the investigation department Tomas von Brömssen as Lars Martin "Johan" Johansson: Jarnebring's colleague Håkan Serner as Andersson: Inspector Ernst Günther as M. Dahlgren: Inspector and chef Thomas Hellberg as Berg: Bureau chief Ingvar Hirdwall as Fors Niels Jensen as Roger "Rogge" Jansson: High school student small criminal Tommy Johnson as Rundberg: Inspector Rico Rönnbäck as Kjell Göran Hedberg: Working at the Swedish Security Service Hans Villius as The Minister for Justice Sten Lonnert as Erik Harald Olsson: Alcoholic Nina Gunke as Eva Zetterberg: Prostitute Margreth Weivers as Alva Wiström: Witness on Skogskyrkogården Gun Karlsson as Fru Forsberg: Witness to the post office robbery Marie Delleskog as Janna: Jansson's sister Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt was chosen for the role of Dahlgren but was replaced by Ernst Günther due to illness just after three days of shooting.
Some scenes were filmed without permission from the Stockholm police, like the scenes in the subway, because Widerberg was too impatient to wait for the permit. There had been some disputes with the police regarding the helicopter crash scene in his previous thriller The Man on the Roof at Odenplan and for that the film team had to borrow cars from the Solna police instead; the movie was shot on Mondays due to the schedules of the two leads who were both appearing in theatre at the time: Sven Wollter in Gävle and Tomas von Brömssen in Gothenburg. Mondays were the only days. Bo Widerberg wanted more realistic, scenes for the car chase scene at Klarastrandsleden and filmed some additional scenes with the actors driving against real traffic. There are similarities between The Man from Majorca and Widerberg's first thriller The Man on the Roof, but similarities with the 1971 thriller The French Connection, an inspiration for this movie. Stardust Allt om Film Magazine #2 2007, article "Sveriges bästa snutar" pp 72–73, It is media Svenska AB, Stockholm The Man from Majorca on IMDb The Man from Majorca at the Swedish Film Institute Database
