Bangkok Cinema Scene special: Swedish Film Festival, April 23-26, 2015

Eight recent films will be screened in the Swedish Film Festival from April 23 to 26 at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld. Here is the line-up:

• The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared – A centenarian dynamite expert escapes from an old folks home, embarking on a journey that leads to murders and suitcase full of cash. Felix Herngren directs this 2014 black comedy, which has won audience awards at festivals.
• Ego – A 25-year-old hard-partying womanizer is forced to re-examine his life when he suddenly loses his eyesight.  Lisa James-Larsson directs this 2013 romantic comedy.
• Belleville Baby – Director Mia Engberg reflects on a past romance in this 2013 autobiographical drama, in which an old flame calls and says he's spent many years in jail. She then recalls the tumultuous spring when she met him in Paris.
• Stockholm Stories – Multiple plots are strung together in this 2013 comedy about five young urbanites whose paths cross during a few rainy days in November.
• Shed No Tears – In Gothenburg, a young man dreaming of making it with his music embarks on an emotional journey to find inspiration. This drama was nominated for 10 Guldbagge Awards last year, Sweden's equivalent of the Oscars.
• Hotell – Alicia Vikander, the young actress who is featured in the current hit Hollywood scary robot movie Ex Machina, stars in this 2013 drama. It's about depressed young folks find a way to shake off their dissatisfaction with life by checking into hotels in order to reboot their personalities.
• The Reunion (Återträffen) – Swedish artist Anna Odell makes her directorial debut with his 2013 drama, which was inspired by her not receiving an invitation to a class reunion. She then sets out to imagine what it would have been like if she'd gone and confronted the classmates who bullied her. It was nominated for four Guldbagge Awards, and won the top-prize Best Film last year.
• A Separation (Att skiljas) – Not to be confused with the award-winning Iranian drama with the same English title, this Swedish Separation is a tragic-comic documentary that chronicles the break-up of a marriage – that of the director's own parents.

This is one of those "free" film festivals, so you know the drill. Tickets will be made available 30 minutes before the show, but the queue for the precious little slips of paper starts forming long before that. Enjoy. For the schedule, please see the SF Cinemas website.