Second story syndrome
Second story syndrome is an intimate documentary about a literary prodigy who lost her ability to write. After the successful debut with the short story collection Bli som folk, writer Stina Stoor got hit with the writer’s block.
Stina Stoor became known in Sweden as the untaught and unemployed outcast from the north that amazed the cultural world with her original and astonishingly well-written debut. The film picks up a few years after the success story that changed Stina Stoor’s life. The celebrated book opened the door to the big world. Today she lives in a palace in Istanbul together with her new husband, the Swedish diplomat Peter Ericson. But even though she has achieved pieces of her childhood’s princess dreams, she’s not feeling the contentment associated with the happy endings of fairy tales. She struggles to become comfortable in her new role as a diplomat’s wife and she misses her daughters badly.
Back home in the village of Balåliden, the place of Stina Stoor’s childhood where all the literary material was collected, her mother Eva still resides. In the periphery there is also a demented father, a brother, a tragic family history and lost memories. But there is also a large and comforting forest. Writing is the one thing that can make Stina Stoor feel independent and free, but she wrestles with the autobiographical - what story that is possible to tell without harming anyone close.
Directed by Elin Berge. Premiere: Tempo Festival March 10th 2023
drottninglandet
The promises of urbanization have called countless Swedes to abandoned their countrysides. Only a few tenacious dairy farmers have resisted and stayed behind with their struggling farms in an increasingly desperate economic climate. Mats-Åke is one of these men. He runs a family farm with the help of his wife Ampawan and her relatives who travel from Thailand to undertake seasonal work in the area. That’s the way it works for more and more farms in northern Sweden. Through “cooperative” marriages the agriculture business can continue, cultures come together, and the Swedish people can continue drinking their beloved milk.
The new inhabitants aren’t just bringing their religion, traditions, and cuisine with them from the East. They also have other ideas about love, family bonds and sexual identity. It appears that those traditionally red-painted farmhouses, the shimmering fields of grain, and docile dairy cows aren’t as “typically Sweden” as we might have thought at first.
Directed by Elin Berge and Lars Berge. Premiered at Way out West 2015.