The Swedish Film Festival will be held on the 24-27th of April at the SFX Cinema in The Emporium shopping mall. Admission is free and it features six movies with very juicy content and a children’s movie.
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For its third consecutive year the Swedish Film Festival will be held this year in a theme that ambassador Klas Molin was quick to describe as “Sex, drugs and rock’n’roll” – he then also underlined that the embassy had nothing to do with the selecting of the movies for the festival.
Broad variety
The festival features a wide range of movies. Among these two highly controversial and eye-opening documentaries.
Swedish filmmaker and journalist Carl Frederik Gertten defiled fruit company Dole’s brand and reputation with his documentary “Bananas!*”. “Big Boys Gone Bananas!*” tells the story of how Dole sued Carl Frederik Gertten and unleashed an army of lobbyists to control and spin media. The movie shows just how threatened freedom of speech can become when facing big business.
The world’s most resilient file-sharing site The Pirate Bay was created by three Swedes. It has been subjected to a horde of lawsuits and nearly everyone who can claim copyright to a digital product has been violated by the site. Already watched over 2 million times on YouTube TPB AFK tells the story of how Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde and Frederik Neij caused the White House to threaten Sweden with trade sanctions and gives you a unique insight in how they liberated the internet.
You can also relive an artistic interpretation of Stockholm’s utopian society in the late 70’s with a seductive, glittery and dirty world of sex clubs a stone’s throw away from government buildings and juvenile homes. Call Girl tells the whole story and depicts how young Iris is corrupted by a world where power is everything. It also contains a less glamorous view of the former Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palme.
But it is not all adult content at the festival. The Ice Dragon is a children’s movie about Mik and his quest for a new home. He runs away on an ice dragon and the movie tells story of his adventures and experiences on his journey.
Besides these you can also watch Avalon, Behind Blue Skies and The Last Sentence.
Cultural common ground
Ambassador Klas Molin described the former years’ festivals as great successes and had huge expectations for this year as well.
“I hope there will be a lot of participants and hopefully it will be equally divided among both expats and Thais,” he said and explained how he viewed the film festival as golden opportunity to gain insight into another culture.
“They say a picture says a thousand words. Well, then a motion picture must say a million,” he said.
Ambassador Klas Molin also expressed his gratitude for the cooperation with SFX Cinema who generously has opened the doors to their cinema at The Emporium free of any charge to give people a chance of experience something new.
Personally the Ambassador was optimistic and hoped he would get the opportunity to watch all seven movies, but if I was to pick he would watch Call Girl as he has not seen that yet and from an artistic point of view he would choose The Last Sentence.
There will be two screenings per day on Thursday and Friday and three screenings on Saturday and Sunday. The event is sponsored by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, Volvo, Scania and Swedish Institute and for more information please contact the SF Call Center at 02-268-8888 or visit their website www.sfcinemacity.com
