“Before arriving in Barcelona, ??I had no idea that Sweden was the paradigm of the perfect country in some European countries”, says the journalist Deepa Parent, who appears in a cameo in This is not Sweden. That’s how she discovered that, in different parts of the world, the perfect country is different: “In India, it’s the American dream. Sweden is just a very cold northern country and not at all perfect”, says the woman who just moved to Collserola , from Paris, befriended Aina Clotet.
The series, which recreates in this part of Barcelona the vicissitudes of a group of fathers and mothers to practice good parenting, has been very well received in the country to which the title refers. In fact, it is an international co-production of Funicular, the production company. In May, Swedish public television, which made it a condition to choose the two Nordic actresses who appear, will broadcast it in prime time.
“When they read the script, the people at the Anagram production company and the Swedish public television told us that they were very proud, and that they felt as honored as they were humbled. Because the series is a two-way de-idealization: it de-idealizes everything, because Sweden doesn’t exist anywhere,” says Clotet.
RTVE Play were the first to trust it (this is their first original fiction), and in fact it was shot twice with them in mind: the version broadcast on TV3 has 80% dialogue in Catalan, and the one that can be seen on RTVE Play, only 60%. “Although it is possible that TVE will pass it entirely in Spanish”, assures Clotet.
The subject of the series, modern child rearing, makes it particularly universal and with possibilities for dialogue with other cultures. Thus, it was presented at the film market in Turin and Gothenburg, and was seen by directors of all the Nordic public television stations. This year, the series that narrates the difficulties of parenting with humor, drama and a suspenseful point has won the Prix Europa for the best television fiction awarded by the European Parliament. And this after having been recognized for its originality at Mipcom in Cannes.
The reality that this fiction includes has involved some residents of the place, whether they are from the world of acting, such as the actress Nausicaa Bonnín, or whether they are dedicated to other jobs, such as Parent herself or the dancer Laura Alcalà, who confesses that she and a group of mothers with children of similar ages copied the basic idea of ??the series: to set up a therapy group for mothers – “we are many and we vet them” – although in her case there is no therapist
“He motivated us. If there is something that worries someone, they say it, we have fun, we are located, we share interests, we network and we laugh for a while. It’s very good to have a group to talk to”, says Alcalà, founder of the La Súbita company.
According to Clotet, therapy is very fundamental to this series, “because it also speaks of excellence, of the extreme individualism in which we find ourselves. And therapies are the antithesis: the tribe, a place of comfort, people with whom to share failures”.
There was even an exchange of ideas so that the cases exposed to therapy in this fiction were not necessarily those of the narrator. In Parent’s case, “you just had to be yourself and explain the reality of being a mother in your situation, how hard it is for the family to consider that you shouldn’t travel to places in conflict because the children need you. And because the therapist who appears in the series really is, she said to me: ‘You have to make sure that the family understands your passion for work’. During the break, having a coffee, we were going to ask him for more advice”.
The independence to discuss the problems with the rolling camera gave rise to “crazy moments, some emotional”, and of all the leftover material that has no place in the series, some capsules have now been edited. They are available on YouTube.
