Intramovies Picks up Sweden’s ‘Sisters’ from the ‘Clara Sola’ producer
Rome-based Intra movies has picked up the sales rights to Swedish filmmaker Mika Gustafson’s “Sisters”, ahead of the film’s pitch as a work in progress at Gothenburg’s Nordic Film Market, which runs 2-5 February.
The film is produced by Nima Yousefi for Stockholm-based Hobabbehind the multi-awarded “Clara Sola” by Nathalie Álvarez Mesen.
European co-producers on board “Sisters” bring in Italy’s Intramovies, Denmark’s Toolbox Film and Finland’s Tuffi Films.
Intramovie’s head of acquisitions and production Marco Valerio Fusco said “as the Italian co-producers, we have loved the project since its inception, and were very excited about the film’s potential, the impressive script and all the talent involved.
“For the good of the film, we didn’t put a priority on the title and left the door open to all other possible sellers. Then when Nima offered us to come on board, we immediately accepted,” said Fusco, who is eager “to let the world discover Mika Gustafson, a fantastic bright new talent.”
“Sisters” marks Gustafson’s first venture into fiction filmmaking after the musical doc-cinema “Silvana” for which she shared a Swedish Guldbagge for best documentary in 2018. The title of the raw coming-of-age title was inspired by the director’s own experience of growing up with her sister in an unsupervised home, and the bond, “stronger than anything else,” that developed between them.
The story, co-written with actor-screenwriter Alexander Öhrstrand, focuses on siblings Laura (16), Mira (12) and Steffi (7), who fend for themselves in a Swedish working-class suburban housing area, when their mother disappears for long periods. When social services get in touch, Laura asks the young woman Hanna to play their mother, to avoid the sisters being placed in foster care and separated.
Gustafson, who studied filmmaking with Ruben Östlund in “Triangle of Sadness” at Valand Film College in Gothenburg, said her film is “about the transience of time and life, about memories and reconciliation. “I want to show what it’s like to be human in those moments when euphoric freedom is juxtaposed with total despair,” she explained.
Topping the charts are young amateurs Bianca Delbravo, Dilvin Asaad and Safira Mossberg as the three sisters and actress Ida Engvoll (“Love & Anarchy”) as Hanna.
“Directing for me is about creating life in the moments and doing it so that there are conditions that allow me to help the actors and to help each other, both pros and debutants,” Gustafson said of his craft. “Ida Engvoll is a friend and artist who was incredibly important to that process. Me and my screenwriter Alex, who is also an actor, trained the non-professionals in acting for almost a year before shooting.”
“Sisters” was recorded last summer on location in Stockholm and is planned for delivery in late spring, around the Cannes film festival, a top launching pad there Hobab world premiere of its lively Directors’ Fortnight title “Clara Sola” in 2021. TriArt will manage the theatrical premiere in Sweden, Scanbox in Denmark and Aurora Studios in Finland.
Yousefi said he looks forward to Gothenburg’s ongoing pitch “to attract interest from festival programmers, other distributors and TV channels.”
Hobab’s film slate brings in Álvarez Mesen’s second film, “The Wolf Will Tear Your Immaculate Hands,” which is currently in pre-production, with principal photography slated to begin in mid-2024. “Our mission is to create a hub for creative, professional and the people behind the artistic craft of filmmaking,” says Yousefi, a partner in the Swedish boutique production shingle with longtime producer Peter Krupenin.
Hobab will also participate in the upcoming Berlinale Co-production Market with Iranian filmmaking duo Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s project “Buran”, which is in the early stages of financing. It will appear in the director section.
The Swedish prodco is a minority partner in Moghaddam and Sanaeeha’s current film “My Favorite Cake”, produced by French Caractères Productions.