“So Damn Easy Going” Producers to Pitch Two Female debuts in Haugesund

Gothenburg-based Cinenic Film, led by Annika Hellström and Erika Malmgren, has an impeccable track record of supporting debut directors with global breakthrough potential.

Their list includes Ísold Uggadóttir (“And Breathe Normally”), Gorki Glaser-Müller (“Children of the Enemy”) and most recently Christoffer Sandler, whose feature debut So Damn Easy Going opened the last Gothenburg Film Festival and is now making his way into Norwegian Haugesund Film Festival (20-26 August).

Cinenic will also be in Haugesund with its latest young filmmakers Angelika Abramovitch and Minka Jakerson and their respective feature film debuts The Braid and The Soft Skin to be featured at the Nordic Co-production Market, part of Haugesund confab New Nordic Movies (23-26 August).

Crimean-born Swede Abramovitch competed in Clermont Ferrand with her Stockholm Academy of Arts graduation film Catcave Hysteria and was selected for the Future Frames Next Generation Showcase in Karlovy Vary in July.

Her directorial debut, horror film The Braid, is penned by Joen Heed Windahl, starring veteran writer Jessika Jankert (Viaplay’s Hammarvik) and Theodor Österberg, who won the British Short Film Awards 2021 for A Swedish Defense.

“We want the best possible horror script for this chilling and tight drama,” Malmgren said of The Braid. Originally conceived by Windahl from his own experience with a mentally ill mother.

In the picture, 11-year-old Ida has a close bond with her mother, Karin, who lives in isolation in the deep forests of northern Sweden. But she begins to fear that her mentally ill mother is possessed by “the Mara”, a creature from Swedish folklore.

For Malmgren and Hellstrom, horror fanatic Abramovitch will bring her own artistic ambition and talent. “She dares to delve into disturbing emotions and transform them into a cinematic language,” they stated.

So far, the €3 million project has been supported by Creative Europe, the Swedish Film Institute, Lindholmen Science Park in Gothenburg. Cinenic Producers are in talks with a Norwegian co-producer and are looking for a third co-production partner for VFX and post-production. Filming in Sweden is planned for autumn 2023.

Meanwhile, the $1.8 million The Soft Skin is a drama thriller co-written by Helmer Minka Jakerson, Mona Masri (a Snabba Cash storyline consultant), and Adam Starsmark. Jakerson’s short film The Yearning Room (2013), also produced by Cinenic, was eliminated from the Berlinale Generation 14+ competition.

“Minka, who trained as a cinematographer, has a tactile approach to filmmaking and builds intense atmospheres in her work,” says Hellström.

Set in a rural community in decline, the story centers on a symbiotic father-daughter relationship that is threatened when Anna asks her father, a police officer, to help her save a refugee family from deportation.

The project is led by multi-award winning Sophia Olsson (“The Charmer”, “Sparrows”), who worked on Jakerson’s The Yearning Room.

The Cinenic founders are once again collaborating with Danish co-producers of Children of the Enemy, Morten Kaufmann (who is responsible for several Thomas Vinterberg pictures including The Hunt) and Toolbox Film’s Signe Leick Jensen. The development is funded by Creative Europe, the Swedish Film Institute, the Swedish Art Grants Committee and the City of Gothenburg.

Hellstrom and Malmgren hope to start filming next winter and are looking to co-finance, sales and distribution at New Nordic Films.

Also on Cinenic’s list is the documentary The Andersson Brothers, about acclaimed Swedish auteur Roy Andersson and his three brothers. The project is in production and will be directed by Andersson’s niece and former collaborator, Johanna Bernhardson.