Falkenberg Farewell (Farväl Falkenberg) is the daring and intensely personal feature debut of director Jesper Ganslandt. He is a self-taught filmmaker who has directed a number of music videos and short films, as well as directed and edited for television. The film exquisitely captures the lives of adolescents in a small seaside community with no discernible connection to city life or society at large. Following several young men during their last summer together in Falkenberg, the film reveals a daily existence filled with idle indulgence and the small quirks and gestures of friendship. The excellent cast of non-professional actors completely inhabits each role. The hand-held cinematography of Fredrik Wenzel ranges from the slow and intimate to the sweeping and expansive, lending shape to the listless innocence and frustrated potential of the characters. Falkenberg Farewell is an understated and fairly abstract mood piece, a raw yet poetic meditation on friendship, dreams, and the deadening ennui of small-town life. As such, it offers a disturbing and courageous portrait of the innocent confusion that is the fate of youth everywhere.For more information: www.falkenbergfarewell.comImage: David Johnson in Falkenberg Farewell