The Swedish feature project is based on a recently published novel by Emma Hamberg, co-creator of the SVT series Dreaming of England.

The Swedish feature project will be developed in conjunction with screenwriter, author and illustrator Emma Hamberg, who has written several books about sex, relationships and cooking.

Je m’appelle Agneta centres on the titular character Agneta (49), who has lost all control and joy in her life after the children have moved out, with a husband and co-workers who do not appreciate nor understand her. She decides to change her life and responds to a newspaper ad in the belief that she will be an au-pair for a lonely boy in a large Provencal house. But nothing turns out as expected. The boy is in fact an elderly demented gentleman living in an empty monastery. Life is celebrated through cheese, wine, dance and a bit of eroticism, very different from Agneta’s earlier fun with paddling, crossword puzzles or bird watching.

SF Studios’ Head of Film Production Annika Sucksdorff describes Je m’appelle Agneta as a “warm, funny and relatable story with a fair amount of self-irony and everyday adventure, exactly what you feel like in these times!” Filming is due to start in 2022.

Sucksdorff is currently working on Björn Runge’s Burn All My Letters, written by The Wife’s director with screenwriter Veronica Zacco (The Bridge, Top Dog). The ambitious drama based on Alex Schulman’s bestselling-novel is scheduled to start filming later this year.