Holger Eriksson, Jörgen Svensson, John Axel Eriksson and director Jesper Ganslandt (from left to right) in Venice. Photo portrait by Fabrizio Maltese for european-films.net, 2006. All rights reserved.

The Swedish film Farväl Falkenberg (Falkenberg Farewell) is an unusual film project to say the least. It was started by a small group of friends from the sleepy coastal town of Falkenberg and was inspired by their own lives. Though some had a little experience with acting or directing, their feature film debut was nevertheless mostly based on improvisation and initially shot without any production company involved. Once the ball got rolling, however, it was hard to stop: a producer became involved for postproduction, the film was invited to the Venice Film Festival (in the Venice Days sidebar) and selected as the official Foreign Language Oscar submission for Sweden. It was nominated several times for the Swedish national film prizes the Guldbagge, including in the Best Director and Best Picture categories. In Venice, the editor of european-films.net, Boyd van Hoeij, sat down for a chat with actor-director Jesper Ganslandt and actors and co-creators John Axel Eriksson and Jörgen Svensson at the Villa degli autori on the beach of the Venetian Lido.