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Sweden sends a record ten films to Amsterdam’s IDFA

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- Jerzy Sladkowski’s Don Juan and Christian Sønderby Jepsen’s Natural Disorder will both screen in the main competition at the 18-29 November showcase

Sweden sends a record ten films to Amsterdam’s IDFA
Don Juan by Jerzy Sladkowski

Sweden will send a record number of ten entries to Amsterdam’s IDFA International Documentary Film Festival, while Denmark will contribute nine films to the programme. The world’s largest showcase of documentaries, which welcomes 2,500 international film professionals every year, will run from 18-29 November.

Swedish-Polish director Jerzy Sladkowski, whose Vodka Factory (2010) won several awards, will have the honour of world-premiering his Don Juan [+see also:
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 in the main competition. Set in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, the film follows a 22-year-old autistic man, Oleg, who seeks approval and love – many people try to help him, but nobody succeeds until one day when help comes from an unexpected source. 

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Three Swedish films have been selected for the Masters section: Erik Gandini’s The Swedish Theory of Love, Stig Björkman’s Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words – the biopic that was launched at Cannes – and Fredrik and Magnus Gertten’s Without a Title.

Magnus Gertten is also represented in Best of Fests with Every Face Has a Name [+see also:
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, together with Karin af Klintberg and Anders Helgeson’s Nice People, and David Aronowitsch, Anna Persson, Ahmet Abdullahi and Sharmarke Binyusu’s I Am Dublin. Tora MårtensMartha & Niki and Åsa Ekman’s Say Something are on show in the Panorama, while Hanna Heilborn’s Ruth can be seen in Kids & Docs.

Danish director Christian Sønderby Jepsen (who most recently made Blood Ties, in 2013) will see his Natural Disorder enter as a contender for the top prize as Best Feature-length Documentary. The film tracks journalist-comedian Jacob Nossell as he searches for the meaning of life as a person with cerebral palsy.

At Home in the World, in the competition for mid-length documentaries, is Danish director Andreas Koefoed’s eighth IDFA entry since 2008 – this time, he depicts the daily life of five asylum-seeking children at a Danish Red Cross school. Katrine Philp’s Home Sweet Home will screen in Kids & Docs.

Other Danish IDFA participants include Nicole N Horanyi’s Motley’s Law (Panorama), Petra Costa and Lea Glob’s Olmo and the Seagull [+see also:
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(Paradocs), Vladimir Tomic’s Flotel Europa [+see also:
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(Best of Fests), Jon Bang Carlsen’s Déjà vu (Masters), Anne Wivel’s Man Falling, and Michael Madsen’s The Visit [+see also:
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(Sounds Real).

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