Some English is spoken in the video, but mostly Norwegian.

The first released trailer.

The actor playing Thor is speaking English with bad pronounciation because it’s  what Thor Heyerdahl did himself.

“Happy End” is one of the most well-played Swedish films in a long time, John Croneman writes. Björn Runge’s direction is tight and the result is a showcase in acting.

I have not exactly been impressed by Björn Runge’s two previous films in the so-called Liberation Trilogy. (…) Now I see “Happy End”, a film that stretches upwards to a five-star heaven, a film completely without twists, on the contrary, low-key and almost gentle in its expression. One of the most well-played Swedish films in a long time.

The direction is tight and hard, the photo speaks to us all the time. Ulf Brantås does perhaps his best job ever.

However, I believe that the script has made the big difference, this time written by the Dane Kim Fupz Aakeson. He and Runge have turned inward, avoiding whims, kept back the expressive displays, the result is both beautiful and disturbing.

The disaster, or rather disasters, are neatly nestled already in the very early stages. One shifts uneasily; this will be a really tough journey. You want to immediately see more.

Five people are woven together by long-term relationships, casual encounters, fate also plays its tricks, no one is really in the right place. And if they are, they are in the wrong company. How will these people ever attain salvation or liberation, how will this miserable collection of humanity find its way out of a seemingly hopeless maze?

Björn Runge and Kim Fupz Aakeson have probably mulled it over for a long time – and fix it brilliantly. The resolution is an epiphany.

Jonna (Ann Petrén) is a driving instructor, lonely and a little bitter. Beside her in the car is Mårten (Peter Andersson) who’s been drowning his grief with alocohol, and have now lost his license. They develop the film’s finest relationship.

Jonna’s son, artist Peter (Gustaf Skarsgård), moves back home to his mother after (yet another) suicide attempt. At momma Jonna’s is the cleaner Katrine (Malin Buska), which Peter falls in love with and he is finally starting to paint again. He paints Katrine.

Katrine shrouds in darkness an even darker relationship. She lives with Asger (Johan Widerberg), an unpredictable, unpleasant former café owner who is now hunted by both loan sharks and the very worst kind of inner demons. The worst kind of man you can imagine, actually. He’s men’s worst traits personified – unfortunately too many women’s everyday life.

(…)

Gustaf Skarsgård’s Peter is so teeth clenching that it hurts just looking – they should hand out mouthgards to the audience, that is how physical Skarsgård becomes, and I’ve never seen him better. Jonna and Peter have a final scene together that’s an instant classic.

(…)

Happy End is a fairytale for adults. It’s about five people living in a world of
shadows, lined by lies and falsities and only waiting for the truth to appear so
that they may be able to continue their lives in another direction. Happy End is
the third part of Björn Runge’s trilogy of liberation, commenced with Daybreak
and Mouth to Mouth about people who are trying to liberate themselves from
destructivity.

ORiGiNAl TiTlE Happy End DiRECTOR Björn Runge sCREENWRiTER Kim Fupz Aakeson
PRiNCiPAl CAsT Ann Petrén, Gustaf Skarsgård, Peter Andersson, David Denciks SCREENiNG DETAils 35 mm, 92 min TO bE RElEAsED Autumn 2011

Björn Runge, born in 1961, started working with film at the age of 20, working for director Roy Andersson. He graduated from Dramatiska institutet in 1989, majoring in directing. He won the Silver Bear in Berlin as well as a Guldbagge award for best director and best script with Daybreak (2004), the first film in a trilogy including Mouth to Mouth (2005) and Happy End.

Translation:

“Yes, then we’ll introduce the actors to play the five Norwegians on board and the one Swede. And you’ve heard rumors about who he is, so we’ll start with him. And that’s Gustaf Skarsgård. He’ll play Bengt Danielsson who was an ethnographer, he could speak Spanish and he could manage a film camera, that was very important. And Gustaf is known for Arn and the new Peter Weir film currently at movie theaters: “The way back”.

Aftonbladet.se

It’s official.

Gustaf Skarsgård will play the Swedish explorer and author Bengt Danielsson in a Norwegian major movie about the Kon-Tiki expedition.

The film, which has a budget of more than 100 million Swedish kronor, is directed by duo Joachim Rönning and Espen Sandberg. Their last movie was the very successful (in Norway) “Max Manus”.

The Kon-Tiki expedition took place 1947. With the Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl in the lead they sailed from Peru to Polynesia on a raft made of balsa tree. The trip took 101 days. Heyerdahl had thus proved that it had been possible for people from prehistoric age to get from the west coast of South America to reach the Polynesian islands. The expedition was depicted in several books and an Oscar-winning documentary film.

Expensive Movie

In the past, the Australian director Phillip Noyce among others was interested in doing a movie about the expedition. But now  Rönning and Sandberg will direct it, and the movie becomes the most expensive ever to be made in Norway.

For a while Alexander Skarsgård was in talks for the role of Heyerdahl, but the TV series “True Blood” collided, and the movie company also wants Heyerdahl to speak Norwegian. The role will be played by Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen, known from the acclaimed Norwegian movie “The Invisible”.

Gustaf Skarsgård plays Bengt Danielsson, the only Swede on board. Danielsson had a successful career after the Kon-Tiki expedition as a writer.

The other actors are Odd Magnus Williamson, Jacob Oftebro, Tobias Santelmann and Anders Baasmo Christiansen. Shooting begins May 24 and will take place in five different countries until September. The premiere will be sometime in 2012.

Expressen.se

- I’ll start reading up on him now, “says Gustaf Skarsgård and continues:
- I had heard of Heyerdahl and knew he was a famous Norwegian. Danielsson, I had never heard of. So for my generation, and those who are younger, this is probably a completely unknown story.

Skarsgård’s latest non-Swedish movie was “The way back”, and he says with a laugh that he’s stuck in the survival genre.
- We’ll shoot some of the scenes on the raft in a large water tank outside Malta. The tank is as big as two football fields.

In “The Way Back” Gustaf Skarsgård speaks English with a Latvian accent. “I went to Riga on my own initiative before the shooting and had a dialect coach who helped me”.

“The way back” is director Peter Weir’s first movie in seven years – and Gustaf Skarsgård’s Hollywood debut.

The film, which is based on the book “The Long Walk” by Slawomir Rawicz, is about a group of prisoners of war who escapes from a labor camp in the Gulag in 1941 to freedom in India. Gustaf plays the Latvian Voss and among his co-stars are big names like Colin Farrell, Ed Harris and Jim Sturgess.
- It was great to work with them. Ed Harris in particular was incredibly cool, open and warm. We were a very tight group.
- Colin was a bit outside of the group but I think it has to do with his character, he’s an outsider. But he was very nice.

The four-month shoot was demanding. For the sake of the role he lost a lot of weight.
- Peter Weir got worried and asked “are you eating enough?”. I weighed 76 kg when I got home and had salmonella.

But Gustaf Skarsgård does not want to highlight their weight loss.
- I think it’s silly to measure an actor’s performance in the amount of weight lost, anyone can go on a diet.

Last winter Gustaf Skarsgård went over to Hollywood to make contacts.
- There I’m nobody at all but it has been quite refreshing and nice to be back at square one.

Gustaf on …

… Hanging with big brother Alexander in Hollywood:
– I spent time with both family and friends over there in the same way as I do here at home. It’s nice to always have at least some family where you’re at.

… Moving to Hollywood:
– Journalists have been writing about it the last five years, people love to write it. But I don’t think I would move there permanently, I’d rather travel there from time to time. I would miss my friends and Södermalm too much.

… Directing:                                                                                                                                                                 Gustaf has directed a short story based on Johan Kling’s debut novel “People of no importance” to be premiered on television later this year.
– I would like to do more directing in the future. The best thing about directing is to be on the set and instruct.

I: Have you seen Black Swan?

G: Yes, it was really good. Natalie Portman was fantastic of course, but the whole movie was equally fantastic. I know people who thought NP was the only good thing about it, but I loved the entire movie. It’s a little psycho.

I: Do you like those kinds of movies?

G: You mean psycho movies??

I: Not necessarily. Like black movies, thrillers…

G: I like movies that are good, regardless of the genre. Everything from romcoms to horror movies.

I: Making a movie requires craftsmanship. Can you  see who the director is by watching a movie, see the craftsmanship behind it?

G: I don’t know if I can tell who the director is, but I can definitely see the handicraft behind it. I’m a little damaged that way. I can’t be totally objective. On the other hand, I know it’s a very good movie when I’m touched by it, beyond ”this is nice, cool, good” .

It’s the same way when I’m assessing the acting. When I look at some skilfull acting, it’s not as impressive as looking at someone ”losing themselves” in the acting. It becomes more real.

I: What’s the big difference between making a movie in Hollywood vs in Sweden?

G: More people, basically. They have 5 people doing the makeup instead of one. But the psychology behind is the same; you walk around being angry with the producers for pushing too much….

I: The same, with just one more dimension…

G: Exactly. I can use my experience from Swedish movie making and apply it here. It’s the same thing.

I: Does it also give you a sense of security? New world, but a recognizable one?

G:  Very true. That’s also why I’ve waited this long to try my luck at an international career. That I’m secure enough in my handicraft instead of just dropping everything and leave for Hollywood and hope someone will give you a chance. Then you’re just at the mercy of fads and hypes that changes all the time.

(Gustaf describes what the movie is all about before a clip from the movie is shown.)

I: What does it feel like when Colin Farrel is standing there, waving a knife at you?

G: It feels scary…

I: Was it fun? The movie has some big names like Ed Harris, Peter Weir…

G: It was a great team. Fantastic. I felt an enormous respect for Ed Harris. He was very nice to us European actors as well. Very warm and open. Somehow he’s managed to hold on to his integrity and authenticity through a Hollywood career, that’s unique.

I: You’ve entered the Hollywood scene at a pretty decent level…

G: Indeed! Absolutely. But then you enter with a smaller role..

I: But that’s almost better, right?

G: Absolutely. Definitively educational.

I: How did you get the part?

G: Went to Berlin and auditioned. Through my Swedish agents.

I: You even met the director…

G: Yes… I did back then. But now that I’ve been auditioning (in Hollywood) there’s a lot of…meeting casting agents… and be one out of 5000 at the auditions. But back then I really got to meet the director and I heard back a couple of weeks later that I got the part!

Then there was a kind of waiting game. They know just how much we European actors want to be in the movie. They’re keeping us on our toes, saying, ”It’s probably going to happen” (the movie). Then you’re sitting at home half a year wondering whether it’s happening or not…

I: They kept you on the rack for a long time…

G: Yes. They know how much we want this. They know that we would pay to be in this movie, that I would take out a mortgage on my apartment and actually pay to be in this movie. That’s the way it is. When you’re not an established actor over there, of course they are going to exploit it.  But as I said; I would also have paid to be in this movie, so it was fun to at least make a little bit of money on it.

(New clip shown)

I: Nice accent..

G: yeah…a little bit eastern.

I:  That’s why they wanted Europeans, because of the accent?

G: No, I don’t think that’s why. Rather that it’s cheaper with Europeans. And also the movie was shot here. Most of the recordings were being done in Europe.

I: They do a lot more auditions and more extensive searches for actors in Hollywood?

G It depends… I audition sometimes here too, but then it’s more like ”we’re pretty sure you’re a good fit for the role, but we just want to make sure.”

But over there it’s more like you get to an audition and then they tell you ”but we’re looking for a short, fat guy…wtf are you doing here?” Yes, wtf am I doing there?!

There’s a lot of typecasting. It’s like that here too, until you reach that level of establishment where they hire you because they trust you as an actor.