We are kicking off our month of excitement, leading up to our 2nd International Strasburg Film Festival with announcements regarding our event which benefits the Shenandoah County Public School District’s Theatre Programs. Today we’re featuring this delightful documentary from the Czech Republic. It will be played during our Saturday 6:30 PM screening at Box Office Brewery.
Synopsis
Synopsis
If we could build a new society from scratch, what would it look like? The polar city Kiruna has seized this opportunity.
Located way above the polar circle, the Swedish mining town Kiruna was built on a great iron ore deposit, and created a significant income for the Swedish government. However, due to the mining the city has started to collapse and in order to save the industry, the city council together with the mining company LKAB have decided to move the town and its citizens 3 kilometers to the east. In this way, the town has turned a potential disaster into a great opportunity. The new Kiruna will be an even more progressive, even better society for the future. But is it even possible to plan an ideal world?
On the backdrop of a moving city, the citizens of the New Kiruna are fighting their own battles. We are following the teacher Timo, a local activist against the moving, the teenage Sami girl Maja who is discovering her family roots and cultural heritage as well as Abdalrahman, a teenage boy from Yemen, who came to the town as a refugee and slowly realizes that it takes more than just a paper to become a Swede.
The seemingly very different characters are facing the same questions and as the city is looking for its place. They are starting their personal search for identity, values and a greater future. The film “Kiruna – a brand new world” is a portrait of a utopian and dystopian town as well as a hard-hitting reflection of today’s society.
Director Biography – Greta Stocklassa
Greta was born in 1993 in Opocno, Czech Republic. She comes from Czech-Swedish family. At the beginning, she lived in Prague, then the family moved to 
Stockholm in 2005. In 2013 she started studying in Prague at documentary department FAMU.
The identity is the main theme through her films. Her “The Still Life of Vera” was premiered at Short Joy at IDFF Jihlava and screened at Vision du reel, Neisse Film Fest or DOK. fest München. In 2015 she made it to the short list of student film prize Magnesia Award (Czech Lions).
She works with stylization and fine formal visualization. Her films are at the edge of document, fiction and experiment.
Filmography
- Kiruna – překrásný nový svět / Kiruna – A Brand New World (2019)
- Kov o kov / Tick Tock (2017)
- Pohledy na Věru Bechyňovou / The Still Life of Vera (2015)
- Středně šedá / Medium grey (2015)
- Emma má mámu / Mum and Emma. Emma and mum. (2014)
- Nebe v síti / The sky in a net (2014)
- Nemocnice / Hospital – chapter I. (2014)
