Paris- based Urban Sales has hopped aboard Frida Kempff’s The Swedish Torpedo, a swimming drama set against the backdrop of the Second World War that is world premiering in Toronto’s Centrepiece section next month.
Set in the summer of 1939, the film is inspired by the true story of Sally Bauer, a Swedish single mother who wants to pursue her dream of becoming the first Scandinavian woman to swim across the English Channel amid pressure from society and her family who threaten to take her son away from her.
Josefin Neldén, whose recent roles include Ali Abbasi’s Border and Jesper Ganslandt’s 438 Days, plays Bauer and Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, Lisa Carlehed and Cecilia Milocco round out the local cast.
The Swedish Torpedo is produced by Momento Film’s Erik Andersson, David Herdies and Michael Krotkiewski, and backed by SVT, TV4, Film I Väst, Proximus & Amrion, Velvet Films, and Inland Film Company.
Kempff co-wrote the script with Marietta von Hausswolff von Baumgarten. TriArt Film will release the film in Scandinavia and Frédéric Corvez’s Paris-based Urban is handling international sales for the rest of the world.
The filmmaker’s debut fiction feature Knocking premiered at 2021’s Sundance and at Sitges. Her credits also include feature documentary Winter Buoy and short film Bathing Micky which won a jury prize in Cannes.
Florencia Gil, head of sales at Urban, first spotted the title at Les Arcs Film Festival where it won the Work in Progress 22D Music Award. She described the film as “an empowering period piece”.
Momento called Kempff “one of Sweden’s most talented and bold directors” and cited her “compelling stories about multilayered women who walk their own path, and don’t let the surrounding society’s view and expectations reduce or limit them”.
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