'Underdog' (Svenskjävel) is currently touring the country, with premier screenings a special feature of the Scandinavian Film Festival.
Written and Directed by Ronnie Sandahl, the film won awards at both the Chicago and Zurich Film Festivals last year, for Best New Director and Best Film Debut. Lead actress Bianca Kronlöf also received the Best Actress award at Les Arcs European Cinema Festival.
The film is set in Oslo, Norway and tells the story of Dino; a young woman who emigrates from Sweden to escape the high levels of youth unemployment. After many wasted hours in the unemployment office, Dino finds herself offering to nanny the children of a middle-aged, ex-tennis pro. She is soon intertwined with a man and his children, who are at a loose end, while their mother is working abroad.
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A character drama, 'Underdog' encapsulates the interpersonal effects of the shifting economic balance between Norway and Sweden. The character’s stances on issues of race, social standing and gender roles are presented candidly and humorously in this minimalist feature. The relationship tensions build genuinely, with little superfluous dialogue. The nuances, and perhaps prejudices, between the Swedish and Norwegian languages are lost a little with English subtitles, but a strong thread of newfound Norwegian elitism still pervades.
Dino is a strong female character who stays true to herself in her changed environment, yet battles past weaknesses and lacks ambition. Her new employer (Henrik Rafaelsen) is floundering in middle-aged domesticity, yet wearing a brave face for his children. His teenage daughter provides an interesting side-character whose troubles are relatable, yet mysterious. This is a film that makes excellent use of subtle, artistic queues to develop real characters.
Bianca Kronlöf is currently touring with the Scandinavian film festival in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra in promotion of what is her debut feature-film performance. A theatre academy graduate, Bianca also writes and performs comedy and has written articles voicing her strong feminist and anti-racist views. One such article was the reason she landed the role of Dino.“I had written an article in a feministic newspaper in Sweden about female roles in Swedish television, cinema and stage. I was pretty harsh and the Director read it and had heard other directors saying ‘who is this young girl and why is she saying this?’ It was quite controversial. I think he thought ‘if this girl is half as talented as she is brave’... So then he called me for the audition.”
With the script already completed, the Director allowed Bianca a lot of freedom in developing Dino’s character further.
“I started to say that I liked [the script] and he was like 'no – what do you want to change? What do you want to add? What do you want to take away?' That's the fantastic thing with him because he's open to new ideas. Everything with the character we came up with together – every tattoo on her body, why she has it, her clothes and so on. I think at one period I called him seven times a day with new details.”
Talking about Dino’s wardrobe, which is a hand-full of items, Bianca stresses the importance of realistic females on screen.“It's really important for a female actor to not be pleasing to a male eye all of the time. I'm there for a different reason than to be good looking.“I am a feminist and I consider myself just as much an activist as I am an artist. When it comes to acting … what I'm not interested in is stereotypes and re-production. Even if you were to play a complete victim, you don't have to do it in this stereotypical way. Sometimes when you see these victim women on TV, it's almost done in a bit of a sexy way... Like we're supposed to enjoy watching it; she's still beautiful, even if she's just been raped.”
Bianca also strives for more realistic expectations of female actors. “Just like a male actor, I want to be able to do everything. I want to play someone that's weak, that's strong, that's weird, that’s hilarious…
“If you think of 'House Of Cards' and playing a man with power – you don't have to be a man that has muscles. You just have to be a good actor. It's not like he has to have great hair and a good body all the time, plus he's allowed to be a bit fat, you know?”
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Born in Sweden to Finnish-migrant parents, Bianca can relate to the realistic scenario portrayed in the film; Sweden’s youth unemployment rate is a timely issue.
“This is a huge thing that's going on right now in Sweden. At one point it [youth unemployment] was up to 25 per cent. It used to be that young people went for three months to work in Norway, working their asses off, saving money, going on a trip and deciding to come back to study in Sweden. Now people go [to Norway] because there are no jobs to get in Sweden.”
As far as future projects go, Bianca is working on a lot of comedy, with her show ‘Full Patte’ soon to air its second series on Sweden’s SVT public service channel.
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“It's a comedy series that's done with my sister. When we show parts of it abroad we call it 'Boobs Through The Wall'. We write it ourselves and we star in it. My sister is a rapper in Sweden, so we did this together. Then we’re going to tour with a stand-up show all around Sweden, and it would be nice to go to other places as well.”
‘Underdog’ is currently screening as part of the Scandinavian Film Festival.
Scandinavian Film Festival Dates
QLD – 16-26 JulyNSW – 8-26 July
VIC – 9-26 July
ACT 14-26 July
Byron Bay – 17-23 July
SA – 22-29 July
WA – 23-29 July
TAS – 23-29 July
