Red Winter

Political tensions flare as an adulterous romance blossoms in the heart of a barren Swedish winter The scene is late seventies Sweden the fourdecadelong reign of the once indestructible sociodemocratic party has come to an end. Parties on the far left begin to mobilize hoping to overcome the prevailing capitalist model on a national scale but also in the streets factories and small towns to the North. This is where we meet Siv a married mother of three employed by the youth sector of her local sociodemocratic chapter. Without warning Siv falls in love with a young Maoist Ulrik who recently arrived from the south of Sweden to militarize—and gain control—of the steelworkers union. Anneli Furmark’s Red Winter weaves together the story of Siv Ukrik and the concentric circles of tension that slowly build around them threatening to disintegrate her family’s foundation. Her three children look on noticing a shift in their mother without fully understanding it. Siv and Ulrik drift through the season musing on their actions their politics their love and its inevitable consequences—while Furmark’s delicate hues of blue and orange heighten the cinematic qualities of northern Sweden’s isolated landscape. Red Winter is a tale of a love that haunts in the darkness of winter.