''The Last Sentence'' ( sv, Dom över död man; Judgement on the dead) is a 2012 Swedish film, directed by

Jan Troell Jan Gustaf Troell (born 23 July 1931) is a Swedish writer-director, and cinematographer. His realistic films, with a lyrical photography in which nature is prominent, have placed him in the first rank of modern Swedish film directors along with I ...

and starring

Jesper Christensen Jesper Christensen (; born 16 May 1948) is a Danish actor. A veteran of European cinema, he has more recently made the transition to English language projects, including '' The Interpreter'' and ''Revelations''. He has also appeared as the mys ...

Pernilla August Pernilla August (; born Mia Pernilla Hertzman-Ericson; 13 February 1958) is a Swedish actress, director and screenwriter. Being one of Sweden's leading actresses and a longtime collaborator with director Ingmar Bergman, she won the Best Actress A ...

, Björn Granath and

Ulla Skoog Ulla Marie Skoog (born 23 February 1951) is a Swedish actress and comedian. She also works as director in TV and at Stockholm City Theatre. Skoog studied at the Swedish National Academy of Mime and Acting from 1979 until 1981, when she started ...

. It is set between 1933 and 1945, and focuses on the life and career of

Torgny Segerstedt Torgny Karl Segerstedt (1 November 1876 – 31 March 1945) was a Swedish professor and scholar of comparative religion, who later became editor-in-chief of the newspaper ''Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning''. He is most remembered for h ...

, a Swedish newspaper editor who was a prominent critic of Hitler and the Nazis during a period when the Swedish government and monarch were intent on maintaining Sweden's neutrality and avoiding tensions with Germany. The film also deals with Segerstedt's relations with his wife, his mistress, and his mistress's husband (who was a close friend of Segerstedt). The film's Swedish title, ''Dom över död man'', comes from a line in the Old Norse poem

Hávamál ''Hávamál'' ( ; Old Norse: ,Unnormalised spelling in the :Title: Final stanza: ../ref> classical pron. , Modern Icelandic pron. , ‘Words of he High One��) is presented as a single poem in the Icelandic , a collection of Old Norse poems fro ...

: "Cattle die, kinsmen die, thou wilt also die; but I know one thing that never dies: the judgment on the dead".

Cast

as Maja Forssman * Björn Granath as Axel Forssman *

as Puste Segerstedt * Peter Andersson as Foreign Minister

Christian Günther Christian Ernst Günther (5 December 1886 – 6 March 1966) was Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Hansson III Cabinet. The unity government was formed after the Soviet attack on Finland in November 1939, the Winter War, and it was d ...

Amanda Ooms Amanda Francisca Ooms (born 5 September 1964) is a Dutch-Swedish actress and writer. She has acted in both film and TV in Sweden and internationally. She was born in Kalmar. Ooms participates in season 10 of '' Stjärnorna på slottet'' which ...

* Maria Heiskanen as Pirjo *

Lennart Hjulström Lennart Hjalmar Hjulström (18 July 1938 – 3 July 2022) was a Swedish actor and director. He was married to Gunilla Nyroos and father of Niklas and Carin Hjulström. His father was Filip Hjulström. Partial filmography *1983: '' Berget på ...

as Marcus Wallenberg * Johanna Troell as Ingrid Segerstedt * Birte Heribertsson as Estrid Ancker * Lia Boysen as Anita * Josef Persson as young revolutionary * Kenneth Milldoff as Prime Minister

Per Albin Hansson Per Albin Hansson (28 October 1885 – 6 October 1946) was a Swedish politician, chairman of the Social Democrats from 1925 and two-time Prime Minister in four governments between 1932 and 1946, governing all that period save for a short-liv ...

* Jan Tiselius as

Gustaf V Gustaf V (Oscar Gustaf Adolf; 16 June 1858 – 29 October 1950) was King of Sweden from 8 December 1907 until his death in 1950. He was the eldest son of King Oscar II of Sweden and Sophia of Nassau, a half-sister of Adolphe, Grand Duke of Lux ...

Production

Development

After finishing his previous feature film, ''

Everlasting Moments ''Everlasting Moments'' ( sv, Maria Larssons eviga ögonblick) is a 2008 Swedish drama film directed by Jan Troell, starring Maria Heiskanen, Mikael Persbrandt and Jesper Christensen. It is based on the true story of Maria Larsson, a Swedish wor ...

'' from 2008, director

has said that he felt an emptiness and wondered whether he ever would get to make another film. Around that time he received a phonecall from the writer

Kenne Fant Carl-Henrik "Kenne" Fant (1 January 1923 – 29 May 2016) was a Swedish actor, director, and writer. Early life Kenne Fant was born in Strängnäs to Captain Tore Fant and Stina Fant (née Gustafsson). He was the younger brother of actor, direc ...

, who in 2007 had published a biography about

, an early outspoken critic of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

who before and during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

had been the editor-in-chief of the newspaper ''

Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning ''Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning'' (''GHT'') was a daily newspaper published in Gothenburg, Sweden, from 1832 to 1985. History and profile ''GHT'' was founded in 1832 by publisher Magnus Prytz and had a liberal alignment from the late ...

''. Fant wondered whether Troell would be interested in making a film based on Segerstedt's life. Troell accepted the offer when his friend

Klaus Rifbjerg Klaus Rifbjerg (15 December 1931 – 4 April 2015) was a Danish writer. He authored more than 170 novels, books and essays. In 1965 he co-produced the film '' 4x4'' which was entered into the 4th Moscow International Film Festival. Biography Ri ...

, a Danish writer, was enthusiastic about the project and wanted to be Troell's co-writer. Initially, Troell had problems finding an approach for the film's narrative, but soon read another biography about Segerstedt, written by his secretary Estrid Ancker. Troell also read Ancker's research material for the book, which included interviews with more than 300 people connected to Segerstedt. Through this material Troell found out more about Segerstedt on a personal level, including his personal motivations and private relationships. The director then chose to make a film which focuses on Segerstedt as a human being more than as a public figure. According to Troell it took "a couple of years" to form the narrative and write the screenplay with Rifbjerg. Production was led by Filmlance International. Co-producers included

Film i Väst Film i Väst (English: "Film in West") is a film company located in Trollhättan, Sweden, nicknamed "Trollywood"), founded in 1992 by the Älvsborg County Council. Lars von Trier used its facilities in his movies, such as ''Dogville'' and ''Ma ...

, Filmpool Nord,

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Swedish national public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksdag (national parliament). Prior to 2019 ...

Nordisk Film Nordisk Film A/S (lit. "Nordic Film") is a Danish entertainment company established in 1906 in Copenhagen by filmmaker Ole Olsen. It is the fourth-oldest film studio in the world behind the Gaumont Film Company, Pathé, and Titanu ...

and companies in Norway. The project received eleven million kronor in support from the

Swedish Film Institute The Swedish Film Institute ( sv, Svenska Filminstitutet) was founded in 1963 to support and develop the Swedish film industry. The institute is housed in the ''Filmhuset'' building located in Gärdet, Östermalm in Stockholm. The building, c ...

and 450,000 euros from

Eurimages Eurimages is a cultural support fund of the Council of Europe, established in 1989. Eurimages promotes independent filmmaking by providing financial support to feature-length fiction, animation, and documentary films. In doing so, it encourages ...

, as well as funding from the Norwegian Film Institute and Nordisk Film- & TV Fond. The production involved a total budget of 43 million kronor. Early in the production process

Max von Sydow Max von Sydow ( , ; born Carl Adolf von Sydow; 10 April 1929 – 8 March 2020) was a Swedish-French actor. He had a 70-year career in European and American cinema, television, and theatre, appearing in more than 150 films and several television ...

was considered for the role of Segerstedt. Soon however Troell decided to offer it to the Danish actor

. Both Troell and Christensen were initially worried about Christensen's Danish accent, which would be inconsistent with the role; this was eventually solved by changing the script to make Segerstedt's mother Danish. The casting choice was also motivated with the fact that Troell's earlier film '' Hamsun'' had starred Sydow, who there spoke Swedish in the role of the Norwegian author

Knut Hamsun Knut Hamsun (4 August 1859 – 19 February 1952) was a Norwegian writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. Hamsun's work spans more than 70 years and shows variation with regard to consciousness, subject, perspective a ...

Filming

Principal photography commenced 21 February 2011 in Luleå where it continued for three weeks. Filmpool Nord's Studio Kronan was used for studio scenes set in ''Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidnings office and Segerstedt's home. Also in Luleå, footage was taken of the

Lule River Lule River ( smj, Julevädno, sv, Lule älv, ''Luleälven'') is a major river in Sweden, rising in northern Sweden and flowing southeast for before reaching the Gulf of Bothnia at Luleå. It is the second longest river by watershed area or len ...

, which stands in for

Klarälven Klarälven ("The clear river" in Swedish) is a river flowing through Norway and Sweden. Together with Göta älv, which it is called as the river has passed through the lake Vänern, thus regarded as an entity, Göta älv—Klarälven is the lon ...

in the film. After that the team relocated to Gothenburg for eight weeks of filming, which consisted of exterior scenes and on-location interiors. Finally they went to Stockholm for three days in May. The filming in Stockholm included a scene set inside the

Storkyrkan Cathedral Storkyrkan (, ), also called Stockholms domkyrka (Stockholm Cathedral) and Sankt Nikolai kyrka (Church of Saint Nicholas), is the oldest church in Stockholm. Storkyrkan lies in the centre of Stockholm in Gamla stan, between Stockholm Palace an ...

, which was staged as a homage to the 1947 short film '' Symphony of a City'' by Arne Sucksdorff, a filmmaker who was a major influence for Troell's earliest works. ''The Last Sentence'' was recorded with

Arri Alexa The Arri Alexa (stylised as ΛLEXΛ) is a digital motion picture camera system developed by Arri. First introduced in April 2010, the camera was Arri's first major transition into digital cinematography after previous efforts such as the Arr ...

cameras. It was the first feature-length fiction film Troell shot digitally, although he had previously directed digital short films and a documentary feature.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Last Sentence Films about journalists Films directed by Jan Troell Films set in Gothenburg Films set in the 1930s Films set in the 1940s Films shot in Sweden 2010s Swedish-language films 2012 films Swedish biographical films 2010s biographical films 2010s Swedish films