The film was co-produced by Abrahamsson and Anderssons Stockholm-basedMylla Filmsin collaboration with head producer Embankment Films.
The project is the first international co-production from Mylla a sign of the companys growing ambitions and resources.
Abrahamssons background is in distribution.
Greta GarboMylla Films/Embankment
He is the CEO and co-owner of the buzzy Nordic and Baltic distribution companyNonStop Entertainment.
He also runs the popular arthouse cinema Capitol in Stockholm.
Andersson is an experienced producer with credits on pics like Lisa LangsethsEuphoriaand Ari AstersMidsommar.
We spoke with the duo alongside Tucker this week at Goteborg.
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Its a great collaboration, Andersson says of working with Abrahamsson.
Cinema admissions are down significantly and production budgets have been cut.
They are also joined by Tucker who digs into how she crafted a new portrait of Garbos life.
DEADLINE: Lorna, how did this project come about?
We all know documentaries dont have the budgets anymore.
This project came about when Garbos nephew reached out.
I could read between the lines of what she was saying and feeling.
After that, the whole piece came together.
We decided to make a film about feeling.
We wanted to show people how it felt when she was writing the letters.
And we wanted to bring it to life through a true cinematic experience.
JAKOB ABRAHAMSSON:The film started with Lorna and Embankment.
We came on through my distribution label Nonstop Entertainment.
We had heard Lorna was making the film.
We had distributed Lornas last film about Vivienne Westwood, so we acquired this.
But then Embankment asked if we knew someone on the ground in Sweden who could help with the shoot.
So thats how the collaboration started.
DEADLINE: Jakob and Patrik, this is your first co-production.
How did you find that process?
Was it difficult to adjust to an international collaboration?
ABRAHAMSSON:Ive known the Embankment crew for a long time as a distributor.
Weve acquired many films from them, so this was very smooth.
We handled the work in Sweden and they took care of the rest.
It was an even split.
Ive worked on lots of different complicated co-productions.
you should probably be in the same boat.
This was a new collaboration for us, which is always interesting.
The UK system is very different from our Swedish system.
That was extremely interesting.
We had such a short amount of time to make it happen.
DEADLINE: Lorna, why did you cast Noomi?
TUCKER:We cast Noomi because we wanted the voice of Garbo to be someone contemporary.
We didnt want to use computer-generated voices.
We wanted it to be someone who could understand her struggles.
Someone who has also overcome a lot of hardships to find her place.
DEADLINE: Jakob and Patrik, I recently interviewed Goteborg Film Festival head Pia Lundberg who name-checked you two.
ABRAHAMSSON:Yes, thats true.
ANDERSSON:Its a great connection and story.
DEADLINE: How do you guys split the work load between Nonstop and Mylla?
ABRAHAMSSON: It varies over the year.
You get a good indication of whats happening and it’s possible for you to find inspiration.
So I would say maybe 50% Mylla and 50% NonStop.
There are 35 employees in total working there.
Its so comforting to have Patrick as my producing partner.
I know that he can handle everything.
And before that, we were just film nerds who grew up watching everything in the local video stores.
The general timeline up here is about five years.
Its a great collaboration.
Its once again a lovely collaboration.
Were the main producers but we have Finnish co-producers and its working smoothly once again.
Its a great project calledBloodsuckers.
Its a horror film about a mother that has had enough of her family.
Were making it in the tone ofSpeak No Evilbut its very close toFalling Downin structure.
Were on track to shoot this year.
DEADLINE: Where are you with Pella Kagerman and Hugo LiljasEgghead Republic?
ABRAHAMSSON:It is a NonStop Ent distribution title.
Its absolutely wild and crazy.
Pella and Hugo, the directors and the producer Nina have been handling everything on the film.
So its just absurd to hear such things said so openly and aggressively.
Its the talk of the town, to say the least, and everyone is pissed.
ABRAHAMSSON:What Patrick said is unfortunately the state of things.
The Swedish industry is not a very prosperous place to be right now.
I assume the speech was bait to launch a discussion.
The report will likely say the local industry is underfunded.
We have much less money per capita than Denmark, Finland, and other countries in Europe.
But it isnt a very productive start to the discussion.
