Maria, a working-class woman in the village of Malmö, wins a Contessa camera in a lottery.  It is 1907. Over the span of a decade, as Maria struggles to keep her home and growing family together in the face of the Great War, a workers' strike, unemployment, and a chronically philandering and abusive husband, the camera records a gallery of "everlasting moments."  Tentative at first, under the tutelage of the kindly village photographer who counsels that "not everyone has the gift of seeing," Maria discovers her talent, and her newfound skill thrusts her on a journey that changes her entire life.  All of it is captured not just via Maria's lens, but through the affectionate viewfinder of Troell himself who, like Maria's mentor, shares "a world to be explored, to preserve, to describe."  This year's Swedish submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Selected filmography: The Emigrants (71), The New Land (72), The Flight of the Eagle (82), Land of Dreams (88), Hamsun (96), As White As Snow (01).

Sponsored by Scandinavian Heritage Foundation.

Winner of the Cinematography and Grand Jury Prizes at the Sundance Film Festival, King of Ping Pong is a shrewd, chilly and offbeat observation of one boy's struggle to find happiness despite grim circumstances.  Overweight teen Rille is already dealing with his divorced parents, harassment from bullies, unrequited love, and his little brother's excessive popularity when his long-absent father drops back into his life.  The one place where Rille rules all is ping pong.  "The film is about how the past has an unpleasant tendency of bouncing back at you.  Like some damn ping-pong ball. I wanted to make a film about life's uphill struggle.  About expectations and ways of looking at life.  And about brothers and blood ties." --Jens Jonsson

First feature film

A riveting study of man vs. nature and traditional society vs. modern life, Wold boasts a bravura performance from Coen Brothers veteran Peter Stormare (Fargo, The Big Lebowski), stunning panoramic vistas of the Arctic wilderness, and intense courtroom drama. Stormare plays Klemens Klemensten, a native Sami (or Lapplander) in the far north of Sweden who herds reindeer as his father did before him, assisted by his teenage nephew Nejla.  When a wolf attacks the herd, the two track the predator down, and, in a gripping encounter, Nejla kills the wolf with a single ax blow.  But wolves are endangered species in Sweden, and Nejla could go to jail for what he did.  To protect Nejla, Klemens takes the blame, risking imprisonment to protect his kin, and ultimately, his way of life.  Wolf offers a balanced view of this environmental conflict, welcoming sympathy for both the Sami and the animals with whom they share the land. 

Filmography: Roseanna (93), Man on the Balcony (93), Tic Tac (97), Straydogs (99).