TIFF Buyers Flock To ‘We Are The Best’

Swedish director Lukas Moodyson’s 7th feature We Are The Best, playing in Toronto’s Special Presentation section, is garnering rave reviews and luring a flurry of buyers. Moodyson’s 1998 romantic drama debut film Show Me Love won Berlin’s Teddy Award and the British Film Institute Prize.

Moodyson almost gave up filmmaking after the flop of his last film, Mammoth. That was over four years ago, and fortunately he has returned to his narrative specialty of the relationship between children and adults with the endearing coming of age drama We Are The Best. Variety’s Guy Lodge described the film as “an eccentric, authentic, and utterly delightful evocation of early teenage life.”

Based on the graphic novel Never Goodnight by his wife Coco Moodyson, the comedy stars three teenagers who create a punk band, reacting to the boredom of their families and school lives. BoBo (Mira Barkhammar) has a partner-less mother who spends most of her time at the  local bar. Klara (Mira Grosin) has nosey, invasive parents. Hedvig (Liv LeMoyne) has a severely Catholic mother. Hedvig is essential to the group, as she’s the only one who can play music but BoBo and Klara convince her to cut her hair and play a song they have written called I Hate Sports. David Rooney of the Hollywood Reporter says “the three girls turn in winning performances, creating a design that is colorful and wraps up the package. They create a delightful snapshot of teenage friendship from the giddy highs to the melancholy funks and are able to triumph.”

The film is a collaborative effort between Moodyson, Lars Jonsson, Memfis Films and Lars von Trier Films, and is succeeding at attracting a wide audience. They have already sold distribution rights in Australia, Italy, Taiwan, the UK, Switzerland, Yugoslavia and Lithuania.