Jan Troell is considered to be the perfect auteur, as not only does he write scripts for his films, but he also shoots and edits them.

Born in 1931 in Malmö; Swedish director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. Profesionally a teacher, has worked in a Malmö school for nine years, at the same time making amateur movies. His film career started with television. He used to make educational films and shorts for children, he also shot Bo Widerberg’s “A Boy And His Kite” (which he co-directed) and “The Baby Carriage.”

His debut was “Here’s your life,” a critically-acclaimed 1966 film adaptation of Eyvind Johnson’s novel series “Romanen om Olof” (“A novel of Olof”). The film tells the story of a boy from the North of the country in the times of the First World War. With heart-grabbing simplicity and poetic freshness, Troell depicts the boy’s maturing emotionally, socially, and politically.

In his “Land of Dreams” (1986), a three-hour-long documentary that Troell dedicated to his five-year-old daughter, the author criticises Swedish society. This critique, full of unrest, is based on a philosophical commentary by American psychoanalyst Rollo May. “Il Capitano” (Silver Bear at the 1991 Berlin Festival), on the other hand, is an attempt to analyse the behaviours of a psychopathic murderer, and is based on a true story. Troell also made “Hamsun” (1966), a film biography focusing on the final, controversial period in the life of the Norwegian Nobel Prize winner.

Prof. Tadeusz Szczepański, curator of Jan Troell’s retrospective

The retrospective will be complemented by the promotion of prof. Szczepański’s book about the director, “Jan Troell,” which was published by Ha!art.

LIST OF FILMS

Hamsun | dir. Jan Troell | DE, NO, DE, DK | 1996 | 159 min

Here’s Your Life | Här har du ditt liv | dir. Jan Troell | SE | 1966 | 169 min

Il Capitano | dir. Jan Troell | SE, FI, DE | 1991 | 110 min

Land of Dreams | Sagolandet | dir. Jan Troell | SE | 1988 | 185 min