Sweden

By Anton Corbijn | March 05, 2010 @ 12:29 pm

Whoever said that Sweden can be cold in the winter wasn't wrong.  We filmed the beginning of the film at the very end of our shooting schedule: Late January in the middle of Sweden, Ostersund.

 

We filmed on a frozen lake in -20° celsius so that was tough on everyone, especially on the actors.  Other than the cold it was just a splendid time - wonderful light, amazing white landscapes and short days filming.

 

George had been able to grow a beard in the time between the end of the Italy shoot and this Swedish part, so there are two very different looks to him in the movie.

We shot a ferry crossing while we were standing with equipment and 5 vans ON the ice -that is how thick and hard the ice is. That is, by the way, not the picture shown, as that is the film camera and the snowmobiles, which is how we shot most of the Sweden section.  It is fun driving these, but beware if you sit on the back of my snowmobile and decide to go backwards.  You might find out that Sweden is very pretty horizontally.