“Circle” bestseller adaptation tops Stockholm Fest events

PanARMENIAN.Net - The much-anticipated adaptation of Swedish fantasy best-seller “The Circle” tops the work-in-progress sessions at the Stockholm Film Festival Industry Days taking place Nov. 12-15, Variety said.

Based on the first young adult novel of a trilogy by Mats Strandberg and Sara Bergmark Elfgren, pic is directed by Levan Akin, whose feature debut, “Certain People,” world preemed at Stockholm in 2011.

“We are very pleased to be the first festival to present a work-in-progress with the ‘The Circle,’ especially since Levan Akin is directing,” said program director George Ivanov. “As with Mikael Marcimain and Amanda Adolfsson, Levan is a director we’ve been following and supporting for a long time.”

“The Circle” is produced by Benny Andersson and his son Ludvig Andersson at their new production company RMV Film, together with Cecilia Norman Mardell. It is the ABBA member’s first film as a producer, and he has also written the score. But he’s not a total stranger to film: he wrote the score to Roy Andersson’s “Songs From the Second Floor” in 2000, and last year he won a Swedish Guldbagge for the music to the documentary “Palme.”

“The Circle” takes place in rural Sweden and follows a group of teenage girls chosen to save the world from evil with their magical powers. Pic has recently picked up SEK 9 million ($1.2 million) from the Swedish Film Institute and will bow nationally on Feb. 18.

Another top project presented as work-in-progress at Stockholm Industry Days is Alexandra-Therese Keining’s “Boys,” a supernatural teen movie about the importance of gender. Keining’s first feature, “Kiss Me,” about a lesbian love affair, won the audience award at AFI in 2011 and was released theatrically in many countries abroad. “Boys” was recently backed by SFI with SEK 10 million ($1.3 million).

In total, 10 work-in-progress, most of them Swedish, will be presented at Industry Days, including seminars, master classes and other events.

About one-fourth of the festival’s 200 films have Swedish distribution.

“Being the capital of Scandinavia, Stockholm is a good place for industry delegates to meet at and network,” says festival director Git Scheynius.