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Looking to buy Ostlund's Play but can't find a Swedish etailer who ships to the US. Any suggestions?

Is there a DVD out? I've had good experiences with NordicDVD but it's not up there and a Google search doesn't return any DVD packaging etc

yoshimori wrote:Looking to buy Ostlund's Play but can't find a Swedish etailer who ships to the US. Any suggestions?

http://www.bengans.se/product.aspx?Curr ... ction=film" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

DH: The link in my original post is to the discshop.se listing for the film, released in March.

Kauno: Thanks. I'd seen the bengans page but balked at the high shipping price - almost as much as the overpriced DVD itself, about $50 total - and thought I'd try asking, to see if there might be other places to buy. I'll wait a day or two and if no one pipes up I'll bite the bullet and go with bengans.

Disappointed a blu-ray wasn't released.

You might want to ask Papercut how much they would charge for shipping - although they've seriously overpriced the disc itself

While on this topic, what contemporary/recent Swedish/Norwegian/Icelandic films would people recommend? I've had bad luck with these countries to the point where I'm now expecting every other Scandinavian film to be a slick and forgettable "feel-good" romp featuring a small community setting, obligatory quirky/eccentric types, "weird sense of humor", etc. I admit I haven't seen that many, but still...

Roy Andersson I like very much; Östlund's Play and Lisa Aschan's She Monkeys are both on my shopping list, along with some slightly older films (mainly Jan Troell). I'm grateful for any more tips that could serve to disprove my bias!

I recommend Smala Susie, it's not very recent but it's so fun ! There's a dvdbeaver review
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReview ... _susie.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am going to travel this summer to Sweden and Denmark. Please, names of physic DVD stores there? Like HMV, etc.

rohmerin wrote:I recommend Smala Susie, it's not very recent but it's so fun !

Thanks for the recommendation, even if that looks pretty much exactly like the kind of "typisk svensk film" I'm trying to avoid right now It does look fun though, watched a bit of it - and damn if those aren't the cleverest opening titles I've seen in a while!

I am going to travel this summer to Sweden and Denmark. Please, names of physic DVD stores there? Like HMV, etc.

Stockholm or where? If I've understood correctly the Megastore there has closed down (?), apparently there are two Filmkedjan shops, but don't know about those. If you happen to be in Malmö, there's a shop called Kvarnvideo that I remember using for mailorder before they stopped delivering abroad - they still seem to have quite a good selection and some pretty attractive discounts as well.

repeat wrote:While on this topic, what contemporary/recent Swedish/Norwegian/Icelandic films would people recommend?

Some of my favourites from these countries:

- Lilja 4-ever
- O' Horten
- Nói albínói

I usually buy Swedish discs from http://megastore.se" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - there may be cheaper options but it works really well.

naersjoen wrote:Some of my favourites from these countries:

Thanks! Nói is very good indeed (and probably one of the reasons I find those other "eccentric individual vs. small community" stories rather bland). I'm biased against Moodysson for some reason, maybe I should give it a try.

O' Horten looks almost like a cross between Patrice Leconte and Roy Andersson, that is to say very promising!

According to Studio S Entertainment the two-disc edition of Flicka och hyacinter (Hasse Ekman, 1950) is subtitled in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish. Can someone confirm that is this true? The back cover only lists Danish and Norwegian.

For Roy Andersson fans, the recent documentary Live, Human, As Long As You Possibly Can is going for cheap at Ginza. English subs, but shipping to EU only.

Discshop ship internationally, but I'm not sure if they ship to the US, did you check? (Shipping cost per order: 100 SEK for up to 4 DVDs, 500 SEK (!) for more than 4 DVDs)
SubDVD ship worldwide, but they don't have Play listed...

Try Daaveedee.com http://www.daaveedee.com/product_info.p ... _id=122772

I can vouch for Daaveedee, great service (and sometimes a dollar or two cheaper via their Amazon Marketplace listing, worth a double-check for any interested title)

Ditto. Their Amazon user rating isn't that great, but it's mostly because of customers that don't understand region locking.

I've had no problem with daveedeee also. It was cheaper for me to order thru Amazon UK even though he is in the US. [They take an average of 10 days to get from the US to Australia] I bought 3 Vilgot Sjoman films and THE BOOKSELLER WHO GAVE UP BATHING. I also splurged on Finnish films acquiring 2 Jorn Donner sets and various films by Niskanen, Kivikoski, etc. All the films I got were subtitled in English but unfortunately not everything else is on the Sandrew Filmparlor or Finnkino labels. (See their respective websites.)

Note: Daveedeee only lists foreign films with English subs. I was annoyed that of the 4 Vilgot Sjoman films released in Sweden as a commemoration to him the one I wanted the most [BLUSHING CHARLIE (1970)] did not carry subs. The others are interesting films nevertheless. The quality is average. Be warned.

But Daaveedee does have a big markup. I've ordered from them and gotten great service, but unless you're just buying one or two things, or need something in a hurry, it's probably cheaper to import from Megastore or Filmifrikki or Amazon.fr or wherever.

L.A. wrote:According to Studio S Entertainment the two-disc edition of Flicka och hyacinter (Hasse Ekman, 1950) is subtitled in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish. Can someone confirm that is this true? The back cover only lists Danish and Norwegian.

Just Danish and Norweigan subtitles. You should consider buying the DVD anyway, it's just 10 SEK at Ginza! (29 SEK cheaper shipping if you use the code FKL58P8 (at least for Swedish customers...).)

DignanSWE wrote:Just Danish and Norweigan subtitles. You should consider buying the DVD anyway, it's just 10 SEK at Ginza! (29 SEK cheaper shipping if you use the code FKL58P8 (at least for Swedish customers...).)

Thanks for the info!

Neither Discshop nor CDON seems to sell Ruben Östulund's Play or De ofrivilliga. Can a helpful Swede explain what the situation is with these Swedish releases. Jag tackar och bockar.

According to Discshop it seems like Play and De Ofrivilliga is oop. They seem to be available as Video on Demand only. Play is still available from Ginza.se. It costs 49 sek (about 4-5 gbp) and shipping would be an additional 79 sek to Finland, Norway, Denmark and 99 sek to all other EU countries. As for De Ofrivilliga, they seem to have one copy left at Movieline.se which is located where i live (Gothenburg) for 79 sek. Don't know if they are willing to ship outside Sweden. I could pick up a copy for you if you are interested. Contact me and we'll work something out.

I was wondering if anyone can help me out finding out some names of recent Swedish female directors. One of the recent developments in terms of gender equality in the country was a government mandate that like 40% of funding had to go to women making films, and I've recently found this piece mentioning that Sweden has an abnormally high rate of women filmmakers compared to the rest of the world:

http://www.swedenabroad.com/en-GB/Embas ... amera-sys/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

However it is surprisingly difficult to find the names of any of these women who have been benefiting from this. I've only managed to uncover Pernilla August, Gabriella Pichler, Agnieszka Lukasiak, and Maria Blom. I am also having zero luck finding releases by any of these women that came to disc with english subs. Any help would be massively appreciated.

(Their gender progressive neighbors to the west, Norway, would also be helpful. As of current I only know about Turn Me On, Dammit)

The winner of the Guldbagge award for best Swedish film have the last three years been a film by a female director: 2011 She Monkeys by Lisa Aschan; 2012 Eat Sleep Die by Gabriela Pichler; 2013 The Reunion by Anna Odell. I have only seen Eat Sleep Die and I wasn't very impressed, but it's a well meaning film about life in a Swedish small town with many immigrants. I suspect that Eat Sleep Die is probably the most interesting of the three.

Edit:
I mean of course that The Reunion] is probably the most interesting. Don't post when drunk...

I thought She Monkeys was OK, maybe fell a bit short of its full potential, but it's definitely worth seeing - a well-made coming-of-age tale with elements of a psychological thriller and even some Östlund-ish provocation (for want of a better word) thrown in. I haven't seen the The Reunion yet, but based on what I've read I'd say it's by far the most promising of these three: it's a kind of a film/performance piece hybrid that messes around with different levels of narration, fiction and documentary.

I seem to remember that Sara Johnsen (Norway, All That Matters Is Past) and Mia Engberg (Sweden, Belleville Baby) were getting good reviews over here recently, but haven't seen their films either so can't recommend. I have the impression that most of that funding is going to films of fairly modest ambition that have little chance of getting beyond the indie festival circuit.