EXCLUSIVE: Swedish directorial duo’s Alexander Rynéus and Per Bifrost’s haunting documentary Once You Shall Be One Of Those Who Lived Long Ago won glowing reviews when it premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival last month.
The work, about a dying mining community in northern Sweden, makes its national debut this weekend in the Nordisk Panorama film festival in Malmö and Deadline can reveal the international trailer.
Set in the slowly disappearing town of Malmberget in northern Sweden, the documentary explores what remains when a place vanishes – not only physically, but emotionally and culturally.
Built atop one of Europe’s largest iron ore mines, the land underneath the town has been hollowed out by extensive mining making parts of it inhabitable.
Malmberget is being dismantled piece by piece, leaving behind boarded windows, demolished homes, and empty streets. Yet amid the ruins, life continues – quietly reshaping itself as nature begins to reclaim the land.
At the heart of the film are the town’s last remaining residents, holding on to a sense of home even as the ground beneath them collapses. Their personal stories speak to broader global realities: communities across the world being erased by industry, climate change, and political decisions.
The filmmakers, who began their artistic relationship with Malmberget in 2013 with Malmberget – The Home and the Cavity, returned in 2019 to document the town’s dissolution. Their follow-up, Fragmented Times blended poetic observation with emotional intimacy, capturing lives in transition with tenderness and atmospheric detail.
Once You Shall Be One Of Those Who Lived Long Ago is produced by Iris Film, Andreas Emanuelsson, Sweden. In co-production with SVT, Filmpool Nord and Film i Dalarna, in association with Intakt and with support from The Swedish Arts Grants Committee and The Swedish Film Institute.
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