By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

Stockholm, Sept. 6(Greenpost)–Gabriella Pichler and Jonas Hassen Khemiri collaborate, Ninja Thyberg updates the image of the horse-loving girl and sami coming of age drama by Amanda Kernell in West Bothnia are among the films awarded funding in August.

From Sámi Blood (Sameblod) by Amanda Kernell.  Photo: Oskar Östergren Amanda Kernell 

Invasion! is Gabriela Pichler’s first film since the Venice awarded Eat Sleep Die (Äta sova dö).  The script is a collaboration between Pichler and Swedish award-winning novelist and playwright Jonas Hassen Khemiri. As in her previous film, Pichler works with first time actors on location.

 Tacit Wisdom (Tyst kunskap) by Saara Cantell is a reality-based psychological social drama about witchcraft on the Swedish-governed Åland islands in the 17th century, where the men in power suppress the wisdom of women.  Independent young Anna is at the centre when the church begins a hunt for women who are in league with the devil.

 With her debut feature Sámi Blood (Sameblod), Amanda Kernell continues along the same lines as her acclaimed short Northern Great Mountain (Norra Storfjället). Elle Marja attends a Sami boarding school in the 1930s. Racial biology examinations cause her to break away from her Sami identity, but becoming Swedish proves to be harder than she thought.

 Three projects in a short format have been awarded funding in August. In the erotic short The Stud (Hingsten) by Ninja Thyberg, horse-loving 16-year-old Adena wants to lose her virginity to her handsome teacher Adam. Patterns are broken and gender roles switch places. In 2013 Thyberg was awarded the Canal+ Award in Cannes for Pleasure, about the porn industry. This is her first film after graduating from the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts.

 The children’s adventure Dreamgame (Drömspel 1) by Elisabet Gustafsson, who made Annabell’s Spectacularities (Krakel Spektakel) in 2014, is part of the Moving Sweden initiative. Nicolas’s mum spends too much time working on her thesis and is literally absorbed into her computer. Nicolas jumps into his video game to save her and meets giant spiders and other characters on his journey to the factory, where his mum is being held captive.

 In Ni ska se att jag har rätt (English title tba) by Saga Gärde, bus-driving union man Magnus gives an impassioned speech behind the wheel as he sees the union losing members, and how the privatisation of public transport is creating stress and occupational injuries among his colleagues