06/04/2023 - Aina Clotet, Mar Coll, Celia Giraldo and Sara Fantova are directing the comedy-drama show, starring Nora Navas, Enric Auquer, Mabel Rivera, Marcel Borràs and Nausicaa Bonnín, among others

This Is Not Sweden [+see also:
series review
series profile], a series created by actress Aina Clotet and filmmaker Sergi Cameron (When You Listen), is currently being filmed (for a total of 13 weeks, wrapping next month) in Barcelona, El Prat and El Penedès. It stars Clotet herself (who will grace screens shortly in The Enchanted [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which won an award recently at the Málaga Film Festival), Marcel Borràs (Uncertain Glory [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agustí Villaronga
film profile], the series El inmortal [+see also:
trailer
making of
series profile]), Nora Navas (who recently scooped a second Goya Award for Libertad [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Clara Roquet
film profile], and who appeared in Stories Not to Be Told [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cesc Gay
film profile]), Enric Auquer (Eye for an Eye [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paco Plaza
film profile], Two Many Chefs [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Tomás del Estal, Liv Mjönes, Ia Langhammer, Mabel Rivera, Nausicaa Bonnín and newcomer Violeta Sanvicens.

Over eight episodes, each lasting 40 minutes (featuring dialogue in Spanish, Catalan, English and Swedish), the show will adopt a comedy-drama tone as it tells of a couple and the contradictions they encounter while trying to protect their children from life’s perils. It is being directed by Aina Clotet (who made her directorial debut in 2015 with the short film Tiger, toplined by Marcel Borràs and herself), Mar Coll (Three Days with the Family [+see also:
trailer
film profile], We All Want What’s Best for Her [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and the miniseries Killing the Father), Celia Giraldo and Sara Fantova: both of the latter, together with other fellow students from the ESCAC, helmed La filla d’algú [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], a movie starring Clotet.

The screenplay – penned by Valentina Viso (The Volunteer [+see also:
film review
film profile]) and Dani González (Donde caben dos [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) – portrays how, in order to bring up their daughters from a more sincere place that is a far cry from their respective and painful childhoods, Mariana (played by Clotet) and Samuel (Borràs) relocate to a neighbourhood in the mountains near Barcelona, where they find other residents with the same aspirations. However, when tragedy strikes in the community, shattering everyone’s ideals, the couple’s convictions start to waver and fear creeps into the relationship, bringing them dangerously close to the very thing they were trying to keep their distance from.

According to Clotet, “This series was born of a personal need: during motherhood, my life was turned upside down, and nobody had warned me about it beforehand. One day, together with other families in the neighbourhood, we decided to create a parental support group, headed up by a specialist psychologist, in order to be able to share our roller-coaster of new, unknown emotions. From that starting point, we began to envisage this series, placing upbringing at the centre of it and aiming to explore how fear can turn you into the worst version of yourself.”

This Is Not Sweden is being produced by Spanish outfits Funicular Films and Nanouk Films together with Sweden’s Anagram Produktion for Spanish channels RTVE and TV3, Sweden’s SVT, Germany’s NDR and Finland’s YLE. It has secured support from ICEC and MEDIA. The series was presented with the Conecta Fiction Best Pitch Award at the Göteborg Film Festival, and has taken part in development labs such as Torino TFL Next TV Series and the producers’ workshop at IFFR.

(Translated from Spanish)