Ulf Friberg

The lives of five seemingly unrelated lost souls intertwine in Sweden’s chilly capital in this delicate and wryly funny ensemble film. A precocious yet untalented young writer, a friendless advertising genius, a tight-lipped workaholic, a shy upper-class boy with a secret crush, and a recently dumped young woman all come to realize hard truths about love and life over the course of several days.

On a crystal clear, starry and bitingly cold winter night a young woman dressed in the traditional Lucia white gown is seen running across the ice while sobbing. She stumbles in her long gown and drops her crown of candles in the snow and when she reaches a channel in the ice she throws herself into the dark waters and disappears. We find Erica and her husband Patrik right in the middle of preparing everything to celebrate Christmas in their house for the first time. On the 13th of December the family goes to church to watch the Lucia celebration only to find out that the Lucia has gone missing. Erica who notices a dispute in the audience can't help herself but to try and find out what the fight was really about and what could have happened to the missing Lucia. The past catches up with the present as Erica's discoveries leads to the missing Lucia, a secret love affair and a son seeking revenge for his mother.

After intervening in a fight, and because of her own history of being abused and beaten, Maria Wern takes on an investigation of the death of a woman who was murdered close to where Maria was beaten. The motive shifts from revenge for infidelity to hate crime against homosexuals, and when the murders continue, Maria's frustration with neighbours and witnesses who refuse to talk increases.

In the middle of the Medieval fair in Visby the house of a 70-year-old woman is set on fire, and she is presumed dead. When another murder occurs Maria Wern and her police colleagues head for a picturesque summer town where everybody knows each other - and where the discovery of several Latin texts and incomprehensible drawings makes the police suspect that all the events have something to do with the medieval fair.

Carl Hamilton manages to infiltrate an international gang that has stolen advanced Swedish GPS-guided missiles. But the league is subjected to a sudden deadly attack by a well drilled group of mercenaries of unknown clients. Hamilton escapes the massacre, but the rockets have disappeared without a trace.

Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist investigates the disappearance of a weary patriarch's niece from 40 years ago. He is aided by the pierced, tattooed, punk computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander. As they work together in the investigation, Blomkvist and Salander uncover immense corruption beyond anything they have ever imagined.

Stockholm East is the love story between two strangers, bound together by a tragedy that has taken its toll on both their lives and relationships. When Johan and Anna meet at the railway station connecting Stockholm with the idyllic suburbs where they both live, they embark on a dangerous journey of passion and lies.

Two women, with no obvious connections, die in what initially looks like suicides. But the odd circumstances have the Gotland police starting to dig deeper, and soon more questions arise.

Ester Henning (1887-1985) was a Swedish sculptor and artist who spent 60 years of her life in mental hospitals. She was poor, in bad health mentally unstable and spent only four years in school before she had to earn a living. But from her closed world she created expressive and appreciated art.

Actor and director Ulf Friberg has filmed August Strindberg's play "Leka med elden". Or at least almost. The story of a middle-aged couple and their summer guests slides almost unnoticed into the story of the relationship between the actors and the director. The result is an airy, summery metafilm of both classic and innovative cuts.