06/10/2016 - The life of the Swedish author of such children’s series as Pippi Longstocking and Emil of Lönneberga will be captured on film by Danish director Pernille Fischer Christensen

Children's author Astrid Lindgren (© Jacob Forsell)

The creator of such popular children’s series as Pippi Longstocking, Emil of Lönneberga, Karlsson-on-the-Roof and the Six Bullerby Children, Sweden’s Astrid Lindgren, whose stories have been the inspiration for 78 films, will be portrayed in a new biographical film tribute, currently in preparation at Sweden’s Nordisk Film Production.

“Lindgren lives in the heart of not only the entire Swedish population, but in those of people far beyond our borders. The story of her life is both fascinating and moving, and this is what we want to tell,” producer Lars G Lindström, of Nordisk Film, explained. The production company has invited Swedish women between the ages of 18 and 25 (preferably with acting experience) to an open casting at Stockholm’s Kompani1 Teater later this week (8-9 October).

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Danish award-winning writer-director Pernille Fischer Christensen will realise the film, principal photography for which has been scheduled to begin 17 February 2017 for an early 2018 release. Fischer Christensen has most recently directed Someone You Love [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which toured the international festival scene. Her 2006 title, A Soap [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lars Bredo Rahbek
interview: Pernille Fischer Christensen
film profile], won a Silver Bear at the Berlinale and was named Best First Feature, and in 2010, her A Family [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] received the international critics’ FIPRESCI prize at the German festival. She will collaborate on the script with Danish screenwriter Kim Fupz Aakeson.

Also credited with the children’s fantasy novels Mio min Mio, Ronia the Robber’s Daughter and The Brothers Lionheart, both of which have film adaptations, Lindgren wrote around 100 books and was, at one stage, the world’s 18^th most translated author (into 76 languages) and the third most translated children’s writer, behind Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm. She died in 2002, aged 94.

The Lindgren name is associated with two literary prizes and an asteroid, among others. In 2015, Swedish director Kristina Lindström directed a three-part documentary TV series for Swedish public broadcaster SVT about her life “and the secret she bore throughout it, which she turned into stories about strong girls and lonely boys”.