Movies Swedish actress shines in the role of her life in Cannes, but praises her two Finnish colleagues – “Laura is honest and Alma is the best”

When Finland and Sweden are compared in film terms, the western neighbor is in many ways ahead. One metric is the Swedish Actors who play international roles.

When Finland doesn’t have a few names to hit the counter Krista Kososen and Jasper Pääkkönen Sweden Rebecca Ferguson, Joel Kinnaman, Noomi Rapace, Alexander and Stellan Skarsgård, Peter Stormare and Alicia Vikander for example.

The list also includes Fares Fares, A 49-year-old Swedish actor with a Lebanese background who plays the role of his life in a film that premiered in Cannes. Fares plays in today’s Egyptian setting Boy from Heaven in the thriller a secret service colonel.

The film is part of the prestigious racing series in Cannes and the reception has been positive, so Fares Fares will be happy to be interviewed. However, he is particularly pleased with the recent news he wants to share.

He is directing his first film!

Descriptions starting later this month. “I’ve been a very busy actor all these years. Now is the time, and I feel ready to guide, ”says Fares in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat.

The name of the upcoming movie is A Day and a Half. In the story, a man abducts his ex-spouse on a journey around the country. “The film is a love story, a drama and a thriller and powerful emotions,” Fares describes. He is also one of the screenwriters of the story.

Premiere will be streaming on Netflix after two years. Netflix is ​​well known, but sometimes small movies drown in the big jaw of a streamer. Fares is not worried.

“Really hello, worldwide distribution,” Fares says. “I want to make an international film. I want everyone to see it. ”

Fares plays the police officer himself in the film. The main couple is a Swede Alexej Manvelov and Finnish Alma Pöysti.

I stood and Fares Fares has been brought together by a gray eminence uniting Finnish and Swedish films, which is rarely seen in public. Eli agents. Such is practically necessary in the international career of every actor.

Fares and Pöyst have the same agent, a Finn Laura Munsterhjelmwhose agency has played no role in the internationalization of Nordic cinema and its authors in recent decades.

Fares found Pöyst through his own agent, on his lists. “At first I looked through Laura’s Actors, read what Alma had done, and thought it was interesting. I asked to watch a movie About Tove Jansson and then I asked Alma for a test shot, ”Fares says.

“Alma is the best,” Fares sighs.

Fares Faresin In Finland as well the remembered breakthrough role was in the 2000 film Jalla! Jalla !. SFares has since been seen with the help of his agent in several Swedish productions as well as side roles in international films such as Zero Dark Thirty, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as well as in series such as Westworld and Chernobyl.

Fares praises his agent and mentions Munsterhjelm’s Finnishness as an advantage.

“Laura is kind of very Finnish. Whatever you ask, you get a short answer: yes, no and okay. It is very Finnish. That’s why Laura is definitely also good, honest and straightforward, ”says Fares.

Fares says he already knew Jalla! Jalla! ‘S times they want a lot from the profession. The theater fly would bite into the drama club during school hours, and as acting began to become more dreamy, parents began to stuff.

“They said the same thing as all the parents: what if there was a real profession?” And kind of understands it. The profession is hard, and getting ahead in the lottery. No, no, no, I come across many times. ”

New movie Boy from Heaven tells of the flicker of an illiterate fisherman receiving a scholarship to Al-Azhar University in Cairo. In the thousand-year-old teaching of the Sunni Muslims, the novice is drawn into strong traditions and a game of power, in which the various disciplines and secular power with their secret police loyal to the president come together.

Namely, the imam is dead, it is time to choose a successor and everyone wants to lead their own husband.

Follow intrigue, back stabbing, gossiping and intermediate bets. The frames for the story are given by the social upheaval of Cairo with its street life and football player Mohammed Salahin with fan pictures.

In Cannes received its world premiere Boy from Heaven is an example of how Sweden, at least for the time being, covers film Finland. Tarik Salehin directed and written by the thriller is one of a total of three Swedish films in the Cannes Series.

However, the viewer may not be surprised at all that the production is Swedish. The story takes place in Egypt, but the pictures are filmed in Turkey and the language is Arabic. The general public hardly thinks that the Finnish co-producer Bufo is involved. The collaboration can be seen on the canvas in such a way that a Helsinki resident plays in one of the key side roles Sherwan Hajiwho played a big role Aki Kaurismäki I hope beyond that in 2017.

As a movie Boy from Heaven is the most commercial side of the Cannes films, as the story is a purebred thriller John le Carrén and Leif GW Perssonin in the spirit. There is an analysis of radicalization as well as a description of a society where women are locked up in homes to feed their children and where politics and religion are strongly intertwined.

Fares is experienced as an actor, but he too fell out of his comfort zone in an Arabic film, as he considers English as his second language after Swedish.

“As a kid, I moved from Lebanon and I only speak Arabic to my mom and dad and I sound like I’m just 12 years old. My vocabulary is limited. The film speaks Egyptian Arabic, so I used a coach. I dubbed all my remarks. Of course, whenever an actor speaks a language other than his own, it immediately brings something new to the role. ”

Fares depicts Colonel Ibrahim in the film, who at the beginning of the film is tasked with making sure the next imam plays into the bag of worldly government. So are you the “boy from heaven” in the movie?

“My character could have had it, but it never worked out for him,” Fares says, noting that his colonel sees something in the fisherman’s son who came to college that he recognizes. The master and racer still life.

Fares doesn’t want to do much to analyze the film or judge the role of religion in the story, for example. “This is more of a window to a whole new world of viewers,” he says in a circular motion. The reason may be that the story is more personal to director Tarik Saleh.

The grandfather of the Swedish-Egyptian supervisor once studied at Al-Azhar University. Tarik Saleh’s previous film The Nile Hilton Accident also settled in Cairo and reported on corrupt police. However, the film was forced into Egypt and director Saleh became an unwanted person in the country.