Axel Petersén, Måns Månsson – The Real Estate #Berlinale2018

PODCAST| Chiara Nicoletti interviews Axel Petersén and Måns Månsson, directors of the film The Real Estate.

There would be no The Real Estate without Léonore Ekstrand as not even Meryl Streep could manage to play the protagonist better than her. This is the first comment directors Axel Petersén and Måns Månsson share on their first film together, in competition at the 68th Berlinale. The film is not only about this spoiled and extreme anti-heroine. It is grotesque, it is surreal but at the same time it depicts something very real that is the real estate situation in Sweden as the title suggests. Even if the film comes in a moment in which there are more and more films focusing on strong female protagonists, the directors reveal that in their case, it’s just a coincidence as they’ve always wanted to work together and they’ve always wanted to try and find a film project that could involve Léonore Ekstrand.

The Real Estate:  After a life of luxury financed by her father, 68-year-old Nojet inherits one of his apartment buildings in Stockholm’s city centre. This lady of leisure returns home from a Spanish island, but instead of a well-organised state of affairs, she finds total chaos. Her half-brother and his son, who is not averse to hitting the bottle and other excesses, have seriously neglected their job as estate caretakers. The building is in a wretched state and full of tenants without a single legal contract between them. Nojet seeks advice from her old friend Lex, the family lawyer-cum-music producer who is in the throes of organising a gala for homeless people. He proposes selling the building to an estate agent. The latter shows an interest at first, but Nojet’s supposedly future-proof inheritance is increasingly proving to be something of a curse. At the heart of The Real Estate is a woman who is still living the good life of yesteryear and just doesn’t want the party to end. The situation in which Nojet now finds herself feels, to her, like a surreal nightmare. She plays the role of a businesswoman and femme fatale and ends up becoming a warrior in her own cause.

To discover more about the film, click here.