Sweden Dreams the Dream

Combine an internet romance, an estranged mother and son and a vacation to Taiwan and anything can happen. That’s the premise of Sweden’s contribution to this year’s European Union Film Festival. And if the reviews are anything to go by it is also full of twists intrigue.

Miss Kicki – Dreaming the Dream tells the unlikely tale of Kicki a Swedish ex-pat who returns to Sweden to be reunited with her 16-year old son. Brought up by his grandmother, Kicki’s son is disinterested in getting to know his estranged mother. To help them get reacquainted, Kicki takes her son on vacation to the exotic Asian capital of Taiwan. The only hitch is that Taipei also happens to be the home of a Taiwanese businessman she has been conducting an internet romance with. What happens next involves gangsters, a friendship between her son and a Taiwanese boy and a mother-son reconcilation of sorts.

As well as being an engaging story, the Swedish offering to Ottawa’s week-long European film festival (November 17 to December 4) also has its fair share of high profile actors and film accolades. Star of the film Pernilla August is a celebrated actress in Sweden. In 1992 she won the best actress award at the Festival de Cannes for The Best Intensions. (In an obscurely known film fact August also played Shmi Skywalker in the Star Awards prequels.) And despite it being Director Håkon Liu’s first feature length debut, Kicki has scooped up three film awards – including the Winner of the Telia Film Award at the Stockholm International Film Festival. Kicki also got the nod for a special mention award at the Pusan 14^th International Film Festival 2009 and the Rainer Wener Fassbinder Prize at Mannheim-Heidelberg. Swedish media have also lapped it up describing it variously as ”a jewel”, a “brilliant debut” and describing its lead actress Pernilla August as “radiant.”

Miss Kicki – Dreaming the Dream will screen 7pm on Monday, November 21 at Library Archives Canada on Wellington St.  More information on the film is available at the Swedish Embassy website at www.swedishembassy.ca.