Viaplay ‘All & Eva’ Teams Talk’s ‘Fleabag’ & Series Mania

Creatives behind sperm donor sequence All & Eva have mentioned the present represents a brand new wave of auteur-driven Scandi drama.

The period of The Killing and The Bridge dominating Scandi fare at occasions similar to Series Mania is lengthy gone, director Johanna Runevad and producer Sofie Palage instructed Deadline within the week main as much as All & Eva’s worldwide competitors screening on the Lille confab.

The pair pointed to hit Swedish dramedies which have aired of late together with Viaplay‘s Love Me and HBO Max’s Lust.

“Ten years ago, the only thing Sweden exported was crime shows and Nordic noir,” mentioned Palage. “Now, the international audience is more likely to watch Swedish shows on other topics. You can do any genre and people will watch. Although I still love crime, it’s great that we don’t only have to do crime.”

For Runevad, this growth has opened up a world of alternatives for administrators in TV, who might beforehand have solely made motion pictures. “It feels like our TV landscape is going in the same direction of letting auteurs do their shows, which is great,” she mentioned. Crime reveals are a lot much less auteur-driven, some are however lots are simply machines.”

All & Eva is a neat instance backing up Runevad and Palage’s argument. The sequence from Warner Bros. ITVP Sweden follows Eva, performed by Tuva Novotny, who believes that happiness lies in her love for herself and her pals, a philosophy that has guided her effectively in her meticulously deliberate life. But when she tracks down her sperm donor in Denmark, Mads, performed by Joachim Fjelstrup, the encounter triggers unexpected twists and turns.

Dramedies similar to All & Eva have been all of the rave the previous few years however it was one of many originators, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag, that actually impressed the crew.

“I was amazed at how you can love her regardless of what she does and found that super inspiring,” mentioned Runevad.

The director, whose earlier credit embrace Falkenberg Forever, due to this fact championed the usage of a musical voiceover to element parts of the plot and what the lead character is pondering, which took the fourth-wall breaking aspect of Fleabag up a notch.

“Her inner voice is like music that also develops in the season,” she added.

“Weird series”

The present covers the little-discussed societal subject of sperm donors in some depth however Runevad confused that she was extra eager to highlight broad themes through a “weird series.” “It wasn’t a story I felt I wanted to tell [at first] to be honest. There is this cliche that you cannot plan life and I thought it was fun to direct a character that is so controlled and knows exactly what they want, and then their feelings take over.”

All & Eva does have one factor in widespread with The Bridge in that they’re each set in Sweden and Denmark, filmed in each languages and have crews from the 2 Nordic nations.

Runevad, who admits she has by no means watched The Bridge, mentioned her need was to make a “weird love story” between the 2 nations that laid naked the neighboring nations’ totally different approaches to sperm donation, amongst different issues.

Palage detailed: “For us Swedes we have this rivalry yet companionship with Denmark. You have these countries that are so close together and we wanted to dive into that by making this great dramedy.”

The largest problem throughout manufacturing, Palage joked, was getting the Swedish and Danish crew to talk to one another in English somewhat than their respective languages, which she mentioned “led to some small misunderstandings.”

“The culture clash we were having in the story we were also having with the team,” she mentioned. “In production meetings I would just be like, ‘Is everybody understanding everything?’.”

All & Eva will display screen Thursday night time at Series Mania and is dealing with off with the likes of Peacock’s Apples Never Fall and Leonard Cohen sequence So Long, Marianne in worldwide competitors.