Opening today is the Swedish teen fantasy film, The Circle, the first in a planned trilogy. Sweden’s most successfull pop composer is the producer.
Based on the best selling novel The Circle by Sara Bergmark Elfgren and Mats Strandberg, the film is the first in a planned trilogy of films based on the Engelsfors trilogy of books. Inspired by Twin Peaks, Supernatural and Buffy the vampire slayer, the story takes places in the fictional community of Engelsfors where Rebecka, Minoo, Vanessa, Anna-Karin, Ida and Linnea are students at the same secondary school. What appears to be a suicide becomes the start of a series of strange events in the town, as the 6 girls discover they are witches chosen to save the world, and an otherworldly evil has slipped into their small town. Together the girls must overcome their differences in order to save themselves and the world.
The first attempt at making the movie (original title: Cirkeln) was made in 2013, although the production was put on hold due to disagreements between the authors and the production company. The director, Levan Akin, left the project, but rejoined the team when former ABBA artist Benny Andersson took the film under his wings. Produced by Andersson and his son Ludvig, as well as Cecilia Norman Mardell, the final 2h 24m film is supposedly more faithful to the book than the first draft. Benny Andersson also scored the movie.
The Circle has been favourably reviewed by several major medias in Sweden. 11 of 15 reviews listed at kritiker.se gives the film a rating of 4 of 5, with the average rating being 3.6 of 5.
Starring Miranda Frydman, Gustav Lindh, Josefin Asplund, Irma Von Platen, Helena Engström, Leona Axelsen, Hanna Asp.
The 40 million SEK film (about 4 million euros) premiered at the Berlin Film Festival on February 10th and its official Swedish premiere is today, in theatres all over the country.
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