On January 26, the 47th edition of Göteborg Film Festival will open with the European premiere of Thea Hvistendahl’s Handling the Undead, an adaptation of John Ajvide Lindqvist’s successful novel. The film competes in the festival’s Nordic Competition, and the opening ceremony takes place both in Gothenburg and in cinemas across Sweden. The opening and Handling the Undead will also be part of Göteborg Film Festival’s online programme and available for streaming in Sweden on the opening night.

With emotional depth, visual power, and perfect pitch, director Thea Hvistendahl tells the story of three families recently left in mourning after the passing of loved ones. Suddenly, the power grid goes out, and the deceased begin to move. Norwegian stars Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie(both acclaimed for The Worst Person in the World) portray complex reunions and interrupted grieving processes alongside, among others, Bahar Pars and Bjørn Sundquist in a chillingly thought-provoking and extraordinary horror drama.
 
“It feels fantastic to open the festival with such a remarkably beautiful, intimately philosophical, and deeply moving film, which also brings together several of the Nordic region’s finest actors. We have never opened the festival with a zombie film before, and it will be festive, cool, and frightening. I can’t wait!” says Jonas Holmberg, Artistic Director, Göteborg Film Festival.
 
Director Thea Hvistendahl has directed several short films, and she made her feature film debut in 2017 with The Monkey and the Mouth. Handling the Undead is her second feature. The film is produced by Kristin Emblem and Guri Neby.
 
“It is a great honor to open Göteborg Film Festival, which, in my opinion, is one of the world’s best festivals. The festival has meant a lot to me and feels like the perfect place to premiere Handling the Undead. We pitched the film there for the first time in 2019, and my previous film The Monkey and the Mouth was screened there in 2018. It is significant to be one of the few films in the Nordic Competition. I am delighted that it is in Gothenburg that the film will have one of its first encounters with the audience,” says Thea Hvistendahl.

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Foto: Morten Brun