Dalecarlians

Colour, 35 mm
Sweden, 2004, 98 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

Swedish cinematography has a certain special atmosphere and some of its old themes are coming back in a new form. Years after saying goodbye, three sisters meet at a celebration of their father’s seventieth birthday. Bergmanesque in some respects, the film was still popular with audiences. The youngest sister, Mia, left for Stockholm fifteen years prior and hasn’t returned to the Dalecarlia region since. But now she has no excuse, although she is rather more afraid of re-encountering her family than looking forward to it. The middle and oldest sisters, Eivor and Gunnila, haven’t changed much - time has merely emphasised their differing character traits. The provincial spirit of Mia’s hometown hasn’t changed either, though now she perceives it more sharply than before. Family ties, however, are stronger than she imagined, and each of her loved ones is hiding a bitter secret.

About the director

Maria Blom, (b. 1971, Täby, Sweden) studied theatre at Södra Latin High School, and the plays which she wrote for Stockholm’s State Theatre have been highly popular with audiences; one of them became the basis of her script for Dalecarlians. Set in the Stockholm suburb of Fisksätra, her first film was Fishy (2003), a pilot yet to be screened in cinemas. Two years ago she moved to central Sweden, to Dalecarlia Province. “I want to show how people take each other for granted, particularly in families - how even though you’re close, you don’t reach each other. You feel far away even at home,” says the director, who in her film pays tribute to the inhabitants of a distinctive region she knows so well.