“An experience brimming with life and colour” (Jan Lumholdt, Cineuropa) – On October 29, see Being Bo Widerberg, Jon Asp and Mattias Nohrborg’s intimate documentary exploring the life and work of the titular iconoclastic Swedish filmmaker. Through a curated mix of archives, film extracts and personal accounts, this documentary looks at the man behind the camera and the lasting impact of his art in Sweden and beyond.

In the early 1960s, inspired by the French New Wave, Swedish director Bo Widerberg (1930-1997) launched a pioneering and idiosyncratic career, making multilayered films that explored familial and romantic conflicts against backdrops of political and social upheaval. Though best known for the international arthouse sensation Elvira Madigan, Widerberg’s eclectic body of works includes the protofeminist drama The Baby Carriage, the semi-autobiographical bildungsroman Raven’s End, two dramas about the labor movement (Ädalen 31, set in Sweden, and Joe Hill, set in the U.S., including Manhattan), and even detective thrillers that set the stage for Nordic noir. A continuing influence on the Nordic film scene, Widerberg’s life and work is ripe for rediscovery.

The documentary follows the Malmö-born Widerberg from his early days as a promising 1950s novelist, going on to become the irascible young critic of contemporary Swedish cinema in the early 1960s, and then changing focus to his groundbreaking oeuvre and his role in jumpstarting the Swedish “nouvelle vague” in a single year. Casting the filmmaker as a firebrand foil to Ingmar Bergman’s more austere sensibilities, Being Bo Widerberg reconstructs the trajectory of an artist fueled by passion, even as his dogged pursuit came at a cost – to his colleagues, his family, and himself.

“Asp and Nohrborg pay proper homage to this complex and daring, passionate and impulsive filmmaker, whose creative spirit often went against the tide” (Benoit Pavan, Cannes Selection Committee)