One of next year’s buzziest Swedish films is based on a book from 1905. Doktor Glas, a modern retelling of the Hjalmar Söderberg novel of the same name, brings a fresh perspective to a Swedish classic. We visit the set in Stockholm to meet with the film’s stars (one of whom doubles as the film's writer)
On an unusually balmy afternoon in early autumn, some 150 extras dressed to the nines in a sort of Victorian rave attire mill about in a courtyard in Stockholm’s Gamla Stan. There are corsets and wigs, platform heels and tulle skirts and all manner of over-the-top, glitter-happy makeup. I’ve arrived on the set of Doktor Glas, a contemporary reimagining of the classic 1905 Hjalmar Söderberg novel of the same name, in the midst of filming a raucous party scene (or at least they were filming a raucous party scene – it appears the production is on break).
A regularly-dressed PR woman leads me inside Gamla Riksarkivet (formerly the National Archives, now an event venue), up a grand staircase and through the maze-like corridors to meet the film’s stars: Thea Sofie Loch Næss, Christian Fandango and Isac Calmroth. The trio of actors are also dressed for the party – Loch Næss in a dramatic white off-the-shoulder corseted gown, Calmroth in a velvet jacket and Fandango in a cropped shirt and dramatic silver makeup – but have broken character to find a quiet corner to chat.
Still of Christian Fandango and Thea Sofie Loch Næss in Doktor Glas. Photo: Ulrika Malm
Still of Isac Calmroth in Doktor Glas. Photo: Ulrika Malm