Netherlands Production Platform - Nederlands Film Festival

Svinalängorna
(The Pigsties)
Hepp Film
Sweden
Writer/director Pernilla August
Producer Helena Danielsson
Synopsis
Freely based on the novel of the same
name by Susanna Alakoski which won the
August Prize (named after August Strindberg),
Svinalängorna is a poignant, beautiful
and dark story which is told with a lot of
humour and without bitterness.
The film starts with the main character
Lena (42) in the present day, then takes her
back in time when she one day receives a
phone call from a hospital saying that her
mother is dying. Lena is forced to confront her
past by returning to something she has buried
deep and closed the door on for 25 years.
Lena is thrown back into her teenage
years in the early 1970s, living with her
Finnish/Swedish family in the small town of
Ystad in the south of Sweden
In the present day, she has a good life,
living in a prosperous suburb with her husband,
Johan, and two daughters, Flisan and
Marja, aged 10 and 12. She has shut out all
the terrible memories from her childhood
and has had no contact at all with people
from her past. Her present-day family
believes they are all dead.
Lena has developed a very controlling
personality, which is common for abused
children who have grown up in a family
where the most important thing every day
was finding a reason to hold a party with lots
of Finnish vodka.
The truth is slowly revealed to Lena’s
family when she brings them back to her
hometown. Meeting her mother and visiting
her old home, she needs to deal with her
past; and, by confronting her memories and
letting her family know who she really is, she
can finally grieve for her childhood and get
on with her life.
Producer’s statement
Everyone was talking about it… continuously.
You know the feeling: it’s almost irritating.
I’m talking about the novel on which this film
is based.
Everyone was touched, talked about it,
discussed it. Even if it was a ‘hard read’, as
you normally say of stories which are about
growing up in difficult conditions. Still, it was
so beautiful, touching, amazing…! How
does that work Because it makes you feel. It
makes you ‘go there’ and be part of it. So I
gave in and joined the crowd of admirers.
Then something even more fantastic
happened: Pernilla August told me she
wanted to bring it to the screen with me producing
it. I’ve had the marvellous opportunity
of working with Pernilla for many years
now and on many films, with me as producer,
her as actress.
Before that, when I was ‘just’ a member
of the audience for her films, I watched and
watched and was so fascinated that this
actress could tell us so much about the
characters’ lives and make us ‘go there’,
into the world of the Annas, the Karins and
all the characters she portrayed.
That’s why, when I followed Pernilla’s
journey into directing, I became totally convinced
she is as brilliant a director and writer
as she is an actress.
Her sensitivity without being too sentimental
is exactly right for this story. And her
humour… I look forward to the coming work
and hope some of you will join me!
28 • NPP 2008