Screened as part of NZIFF 2007

Falkenberg Farewell 2006

Farväl Falkenberg

Directed by Jesper Ganslandt

This tale of five male friends in a Swedish coastal town blurs realism and fiction to create a palpable sense of doom. Astonishing debut from director Jesper Ganslandt, who plays himself in the film.

Sweden In Swedish with English subtitles
88 minutes CinemaScope

Director

Screenplay

Jesper Ganslandt
,
Fredrik Wenzel

Photography

Fredrik Wenzel

Editor

Jesper Ganslandt
,
Michal Leszczylowski

Music

Erik Enocksson

With

Holger Eriksson
,
David Johnson
,
John Axel Eriksson
,
Jesper Ganslandt
,
Jörgen Svensson

Elsewhere

In the Swedish coastal town of Falkenberg, five male friends spend their final days of summer wondering about their future and reminiscing about the past. Holger wants to stay in Falkenberg forever. His brother John doesn't say much. Jörgen battles boredom by breaking into houses. Jesper is a loner who visits his elderly father. David keeps a diary of his inner thoughts. From this simple tableau, director/co-writer Jesper Ganslandt has fashioned an astonishing debut in which he and his pals play characters based upon themselves. This blurring of realism and fiction is initially unnoticed, as the narrative ambles along, the characters each responding to the small town ennui. However, a sense of doom soon becomes palpable. By casting his characters' real-life family members within the confines of his fiction, the director places the audience in a mindscape of emotional quicksand. Reminiscent in tone to the fiction of the late W.G. Sebald, Falkenberg Farewell seems to push the edges of cinema across a hitherto untraversed boundary.