Synopsis

In the film we get to know a number of people who live and work in Sweden’s southernmost sparsely populated municipality. Ydre has a population of about 3600 – or 3600 “originals”, as the municipal council calls it. Can a sparsely populated municipality like Ydre survive, and what strategies are being discussed among its leaders? Every individual in Ydre is crucial. We hear how the municipal councillor talks about “minus one” or “plus two” in the population statistics. The story weaves together our characters’ lives with the events and processes taking place in the region.

 

The film portrays cities as the main threat, the thing that sucks people out of rural communities. The population of Stockholm grows each month by about the population of Ydre and the Swedish countryside is being drained of people and content. Sweden is the European country with the number-one fastest rate of urbanisation. But we also note that cities can have a completely different effect on the countryside, are we seeing the birth of the modern rural community creating new fields of rural activity out e.g. from the trends and demands of the cities?

 

With its beautiful, richly varied flora, deep woods, meadows and hundreds of lakes, Ydre serves as the backcloth anchoring the story in the environment that has left deep marks on its inhabitants for so long. Old stories, customs and traditions lurking in the neighborhood appears in the film creating something of a Twin Peaks mood, with recurring touches of the quirky, the absurd and a dreamlike atmosphere.

 

Title: LANDET 1 +

 

Directors: Malla Grapengiesser, Per Bifrost (Eriksson) och Alexander Rynéus

Cinematography: Per Bifrost (Eriksson) and Alexander Rynéus

Producer: Malla GrapengiesserLength:  ca 58/90 min

 

With development support from:The Swedish Film Institute/Cecilia Ledin