The creators behind the sperm donor series All and Eva They said the show represented a new wave of auteur-driven Scandinavian drama.
squeeze out the kill And the bridge Director Joanna Runvad and producer Sophie Balage told Deadline the week before All and Eva Presentation of international competition at the Lille Conference.
The duo has planned to hit Swedish dramas that have recently aired including Viaplay’s Loved Me And HBO Max lust.
“Ten years ago, the only thing Sweden exported was crime shows and Scandinavian noir films,” Balage said. “Now, international audiences are more likely to watch Swedish shows on other subjects. You can do any genre and people will watch it. Although I still love crime, it’s great that we don’t just have to do crime.”
For Ronvad, this development opened up a world of opportunities for directors in television, who previously might have only made films. “Our TV landscape seems to be moving in the same direction of allowing authors to pitch, which is great,” she said. Crime shows are less author-directed, some are, but many are just machines.
All and Eva is a great example that supports Runevad and Palage’s argument. The series is produced by Warner Bros. ITVP Sweden follows Eva, played by Tova Novotny, who believes that happiness lies in loving herself and her friends, a philosophy that has guided her well in her meticulously planned life. But when she tracks down her sperm donor in Denmark, Mads, played by Joachim Filstrup, the encounter leads to unexpected twists and turns.
Drama like All and Eva These have been the big rave for the past few years but one of the creators was, Phoebe Waller-Bridge garbage bag, He really inspired this team.
“I was amazed at how you can love it no matter what you do, and I found that very inspiring,” Ronivad said.
The director whose previous credits include falkenberg forever, He therefore advocated the use of musical voiceover to detail plot elements and what the main character is thinking, which took the element of breaking the fourth wall from Flea bag Up to a degree.
“Her inner voice is like music that also evolves in the season,” she added.
“Strange series”
From left to right: DOP Ragna Jorming, Director Johanna Runevad. Photo: Ulrika Malm.
The show covers the under-discussed societal topic of sperm donors in some depth, but Runivad emphasized that she was more keen to highlight broad themes across the “weird series”. “It wasn’t the story I felt I wanted to tell (initially), to be honest. There’s a cliche that you can’t plan your life, and I thought it would be fun to direct a character who is very controlled and knows exactly what she wants, and then takes charge of her emotions.”
All and Eva It has one thing in common with… the bridge They were filmed in Sweden and Denmark, and were filmed in both languages, with work teams from the Nordic countries.
Runivad, who admits she’s never seen it before the bridge, She said her desire was to create a “weird love story” between the two countries that would reveal the different approaches of neighboring countries to sperm donation, among other things.
“For us Swedes, we have this rivalry and friendship with Denmark. You have these countries that are very close to each other and we wanted to delve into that by making this wonderful drama,” Balage explained.
Balage joked that the biggest challenge during production was getting the Swedish and Danish crew to speak to each other in English rather than their own language, which she said “led to some minor misunderstandings.”
“The cultural conflict we were having in the story we also had with the team,” she said. “In production meetings, I would say to myself: ‘Does everyone understand everything?’”
All and Eva He’ll be on display Thursday night at Series Mania and take on the likes of Peacock’s Apples never fall And the Leonard Cohen series So long, Marianne In international competition.