The film will be delivered in time for the top international festivals early 2023.

Vintersaga is based on the 1984 Swedish song of the same name, written by Ted Ström. Olsson said his desire to make a film based on the song came from a fascination for its structure. “The song has a very fragmentary storytelling where we as listeners are being tossed between different parts of Sweden and different more or less recognisable situations. It is a way of storytelling that forces us to make up much of the story ourselves, to connect the dots,” Olsson observes.

“This structure corresponds quite precisely with the way I would like to work with cinema,” adds the Swedish director, referring to “the dialogue between the audience and the images on the screen.”

Detailing the film’s structure, Olsson said: “Vintersaga is built around 24 main scenes, which are my personal interpretations of the 24 stanzas of the song. But in total the film contains 65 tableaux images, as we allow the audience to return to some of the stories developed in the main scenes. Most of the scenes naturally come from what I see in front of me when I hear the specific stanza, but they are also expressions of phenomena that I see as typical for modern day Sweden. I have also looked for situations that somehow can express the melancholy and loneliness that is a big part of my country's DNA,” he said.

For producer Antonio Russo Merenda of Ginestra Film, Vintersaga is “a truly cinematic ‘Hopperesque’ interpretation of the famous 1984 Swedish song, which plays with contrasts and ambiguities on many levels. “In 24 meticulously framed situations, sometimes via surreal tableaux but also through motion, the film vigorously observes both the trivial and the grand, mostly human stories, with a rich blend of souls juggling doubts, memories, and dreams. Ultimately the bitter cold winds shape a nation towards a bittersweet melancholy, not only sadness, but also full of longing, wilfully reminding us of a shared humanity,” notes the seasoned producer, credited for Sabaya, The Deminer and Don Juan among others.

Final Cut for Real-co-founder Anne Köhncke said she’d known about Vintersaga for a long time, having worked with Olsson on Meanwhile on Earth and his previous film Patrimonium, both nominated for Best Nordic Documentary in Göteborg. “I was therefore super excited to last winter formally start working with Antonio Russo Merenda, and to enter as a Danish co-producer.”

“Carl Olsson is a very special filmmaker, he is able to combine an absolutely stunning visual language with a genuine and what I would call loving curiosity in looking at us, the human beings, the cracks, the contrasts, the unexpected depths, the details and every-days that is life. I always discover something new, in what I see and in myself and the world,” she said.

For her, Vintersaga is “a tour de force not only through Sweden, but through life. It's melancholic, moving, funny, straightforward, poetic, harsh and magnificent!”

Olsson has teamed up with his regular editor Sofie Steeberger and cinematographer Mathias Døcker, who is sharing the photographic duties with Ita Zbroniec-Zajt (Ridge, The Yard, 22 July).

Besides Final Cut for Real, co-producers include Film i Väst, Filmpool Nord and Momento Film. The film has received support from the Swedish Film Institute, the Danish Film Institute, The Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Danish Arts Foundation, Filmregion Sydöst and Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Russo Merenda said he is currently discussing the film with several sales agents.