Per Johan Axel Åhlin (7 August 1931 – 1 May 2023) was a Swedish artist and director of animated films. He is known for his collaborations with the comedy duo Hasse & Tage and for his own projects such as the animated short film and television film '' Sagan om Karl-Bertil Jonssons julafton'' and the feature film '' Voyage to Melonia''.

Life and career

Åhlin started his career as an artist for the Hasse & Tage production ''Svenska bilder'' from 1964. After that he worked on several other Hasse & Tage films, including the largely animated '' Out of an Old Man's Head'' from 1968, and ''

The Adventures of Picasso ''The Adventures of Picasso'' () is a 1978 Swedish surrealist comedy film directed by Tage Danielsson, starring Gösta Ekman, as the famous painter. The film had the tag-line ''Tusen kärleksfulla lögner av Hans Alfredson och Tage Danielsso ...

'' from 1978, where he provided and animated

Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

's paintings. In 1970 he started his own animation studio, PennFilm Studio AB situated in

Hököpinge Hököpinge is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality situated in Vellinge Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 1,105 inhabitants in 2010. It lies about 2 km north of Vellinge. The village contains mostly older buildings along small roads. Ho ...

, and directed many feature-length films and several shorts, including '' Sagan om Karl-Bertil Jonssons julafton'' which is shown on television every Christmas Eve in Sweden,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, and

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. In 1975 at the 11th Guldbagge Awards, Åhlin won a special achievement award for '' Dunderklumpen!''. In 1990 at the

25th Guldbagge Awards The 25th Guldbagge Awards ceremony, presented by the Swedish Film Institute, honored the best Swedish films of 1989, and took place on 5 February 1990. '' The Miracle in Valby'' directed by Åke Sandgren was presented with the award for Best Fi ...

he won the Creative Achievement award. Although eventually best known for his work on children's film, Åhlin was always more interested in films for adult audiences. He has commented on the difficulties of making animated films with adult themes: "I don't know whether the problem lies in the audience or the marketing. But think like this: if you draw like Picasso, Doré or Sergel, then those are images that have no connection to film. If they then would be animated and suddenly started to move – would they become children's film then? I can't understand this!" Åhlin died on 1 May 2023, at age 91.

Selected filmography

* '' Out of an Old Man's Head'' (''I huvet på en gammal gubbe'') (1968) * '' Dunderklumpen!'' (1974) * '' Sagan om Karl-Bertil Jonssons julafton'' (1975) short film * '' Voyage to Melonia'' (''Resan till Melonia'') (1989) * '' The Dog Hotel'' (''Hundhotellet'') (2000) * '' That Boy Emil'' (2013)

Unfinished projects

Åhlin had developed several films which had never been finished due to lack of funding or interested producers. His personal dream project, which had been in development since 1992, was the feature film ''Hoffmanns ögon'' ("Hoffmann's eyes"), which is based on

Jacques Offenbach Jacques Offenbach (; 20 June 18195 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera ''The Tales of Hoffmann''. He was a p ...

's opera ''

The Tales of Hoffmann ''The Tales of Hoffmann'' (French: ) is an by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who is the protagonist of the story. It was Offenbach's final work; he died in ...

''. As of 2009, Åhlin had said that he still occasionally worked on the project on his own: "Hopefully it can become a few minutes which can give potential producers remorse in the future". Other unfinished films include ''Den magiska saxofonen'' ("The magic saxophone"), ''HC Andersen'', and an adaptation of

Eric Linklater Eric Robert Russell Linklater CBE (8 March 1899 – 7 November 1974) was a Welsh-born Scottish poet, fiction writer, military historian, and travel writer. For '' The Wind on the Moon'', a children's fantasy novel, he won the 1944 Carnegie Med ...

's ''

The Wind on the Moon ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'', with a screenplay by

Ulf Stark Ulf Gottfrid Stark (12 July 1944 – 13 June 2017) was a Swedish author and screenwriter (he adapted several of his own books for film and wrote the screenplay for the 1999 film '' Tsatsiki, morsan och polisen''). Stark has collaborated with th ...

. Designs and other finished material from these projects have been exhibited multiple times at events in Sweden.

References

External links

PennFilm Studio AB
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ahlin, Per 1931 births 2023 deaths Swedish animated film directors Swedish animators People from Hofors Municipality