AVALON has won the FIPRESCI Discovery Award for Best Feature Film debut at the Toronto International Film Festival 2011. FIPRESCI, which is the international federation of film critics, gave the following verdict from their jury:
”An assured, darkly humorous portrait of an affluent class in hedonistic self-denial, Avalon marks the arrival of a promising new voice in Swedish filmmaking.”
During Toronto International Film Festival AVALON was much appraised:
“Petersen is a talent to watch, and specialty houses could do respectable biz with a film that echoes some of the best of recent Scandinavian art cinema.“ Variety
“Avalon is unforgiving, a short experiment in an austere poetry that no fan of the bleaker side of Scandinavian cinema should miss" IndieWire
“A wrenching, darkly funny debut feature. There´s a savage humour to Axel Petersén´s Avalon that´s rare in a first time feature filmmaker.“ Torontoist
“Avalon rests in the grey area between the usual meandering, existential Swedish fare and the chilling Nordic crime blockbusters like Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. Avalon is something of a hybrid, a meditative and very Scandinavian film, but it's not just a matter of combining Jo Nesbø, Henning Mankell and a dash of Lars von Trier. Instead, it's about knowing when it's time to leave the party, a story inspired by Petersén's aunt, who still lives the party lifestyle.” The National Post
Axel Petersén (1979) is the director of several acclaimed short films and his latest film THE TRACK OF MY TEARS 2 has its premiere in Venice Orizzonti 2011. Last year Axel was Guldbagge-nominated for his short a good friend of Mr. World. Axel is trained at the Czech film school FAMU and the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts.
SYNOPSIS: After serving time with an ankle bracelet, Janne, a former party organizer, travels to Båstad to open an exclusive nightclub and get his life back on track. During the star-studded tennis week, he makes his final preparations before theopening, hangs out with his sister Jackie and enjoys life as a soon-to-be-crowned club king. But just a few days before the club´s premier, Janne causes a catastrophic accident and his increasingly desperate attempts to deal with thesituation drag him into a dark downward spiral.
The film is produced by Erika Wasserman and Jesper Kurlandsky, production companies being Idyll AB and Fasad AB (THE APE, 2009; BURROWING, 2009), and is supported by The Swedish Film Institute / consultant Lars G. Lindström.
It is the first time that a Swedish film wins the FIPRESCI Discovery Award.
AVALON is domestically released February 2012 and is distributed by Nordisk Film.
For more information about AVALON
tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2011/avalon
www.avalonthefilm.com
trustnordisk.com/film/2011-avalon