Wild Bunch picks up Ronnie Sandahl’s Tigers

Paris-based Wild Bunch will handle internationals sales (outside the Nordics) on Tigers (Tigrar), the sophomore film by Ronnie Sandahl, multi-awarded for his directorial debut Underdog. It is also the director’s second instalment in a trilogy set in the world of sports, after Janus Metz’s Borg vs McEnroe, penned by Sandahl.

The film is based on footballer-turned writer Martin Bengtsson’s autobiographical novel In the Shadow of San Siro published in 2007. As previously reported (CLICK HERE) the novel tells of Bengtsson’s experience as a 17 year-old football wonderkid, freshly recruited by Inter Milan, whose dream turned into a nightmare when he started suffering from depression and tried to commit suicide.

“The film is really about a young man - Martin - who discovers things about himself and is transformed. Football is just an arena to tell this coming of age story. But the film does raise the problem of mental illness within the high-pressured money-driven world of professional football, that affects about 30% of top players in the world,” stressed Black Spark Film’s producer Piodor Gustafsson (The Wife, Border).

In the starring roles are Erik Lönngren (The Bridge, The Sandhamn Murders), Frida Gustavsson (Swoon), Marizio Lombardi (The New Pope, The Name of the Rose), Gianluca di Gennaro (The Restaurant, Gomorra), Liv Mjönäs (Sthlm Requiem, A Serious Game) and Johannes Bah Kuhnke (The Rain, Force Majeure).

Tigers is co-produced by Denmark’s SF Studios, Italy’s Art of Panic, in association with SVT, RAI, with support from among others the Swedish Film Institute, the Danish Film Institute and Torino Film Commission.

Filming on location in and around Torino just wrapped.

TriArt will handle the Swedish release, set for October 2020.