Project Description
Director: Pernilla August
Producers: Patrik Andersson, Frida Bargo
Production companies: B-Reel Films
Release date: Berlinale
Follow the production hereThe greatest Swedish love story is celebrating a full century! Scripted by Danish writer/director Lone Scherfig (Italian For Beginners, An Education) and to be directed by Pernilla August (Svinalängorna/Beyond) the epic scope of Hjalmar Söderberg’s complex love story between Arvid Stjärnblom and Lydia Stille will finally be made into a full cinema experience.
Once Lydia was the innocent girl – a daughter of a painter – that young journalist Arvid fell in love with out in the archipelago. Or did he? Did he fall in love with the idea of what love is supposed to be? In its clearest, most untainted form. The beauty of love, the match made in heaven, the love at first sight. Arvid feels that he wants to make an importance in the world and make a clear break from his social background. His ambition stands in the way of marriage and the love slips away.
A decade has past since they first set eyes on each other. Now both are married. Yet not with each other. They meet again and end up having an affair. An affair that forces the couple to reflect upon the time passed, how different they both have become and how far away from each other they actually are. The consequences of their affair are unforeseeable.
In the hands of Lone Scherfig one of the most celebrated stories of Swedish literature have become a heartbreaking, humorous and erotic tale about the complexity of love set in the beautiful setting of turn-of-the-century Stockholm.
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TrustNordisk and Film Väst are proud to announce that A SERIOUS GAME has been officially selected for the Berlinale Special Gala section. Director, Pernilla August states: “I am so happy that the film will have it’s world premiere in Berlin. It will be great to finally see A SERIOUS GAME fly on its own wings and meet with an international audience.”
Award winning director Pernilla August’s (THE LEGACY 2014, BEYOND 2010) adaptation of Hjalmar Söderberg’s classic romantic novel is based on a screenplay written by Academy Award and Bafta nominated director and screenwriter Lone Scherfig (ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS 2000, AN EDUCATION 2009, THE RIOT CLUB 2014). Söderberg’s novel has been published in several major territories; Germany, UK, France, Netherlands, Italy, Spain among others.
A SERIOUS GAME is an epic love story about the illusions of love and the consequences which sometimes follow. A story about passionate and overpowering love set in turn of the twentieth century Stockholm, starring Karin Franz Körlof (NOBODY OWNS ME, 2013), Sverrir Gudnason (MONICA Z, 2013) and Michael Nyqvist (THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, 2009 and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL, 2011).
A SERIOUS GAME is produced by Patrik Andersson, Frida Bargo and Fredrik Heinig for B-Reel Films in co-production with Film Väst, SVT, Nordisk Film, Motlys, Bonnier Books, Reel Ventures, Nordsvensk Filmunderhållning and Nimbus Film, in collaboration with YLE and Film Capital Stockholm/Filmregionen Stockholm-Mälardalen, with support from The Swedish Film Institute, Danish Film Institute, The Norwegian Film Institute, Creative Europe, Nordisk Film & TV Fond and Filmregionen Stockholm-Mälardalen.
Nordic distribution through Nordisk Film Distribution. TrustNordisk handles international sales.
