Emma Molin fell in love with the very first “Göta kanal” film “Göta kanal or vem drog ur proppen” from 1981. When she was asked to direct the fourth film, with Grotesco colleague Rikard Ulvshammar as screenwriter, she accepted. With the film, she also makes her debut as a feature film director.
— It has been extremely challenging to direct. But it’s probably the funnest thing I’ve done, she tells TT.
Per Andersson plays the character Arvid in the new “Göta Kanal 4″. Press image.”Göta channel” as bushis-noir
The three previous “Göta kanal” films are all placed in the buskis compartment. Stomach splashes in the canal (which turns 200 this year) and a steering wheel that detaches from the boat are common features. The bush is very vivid in this version as well, but Molin thinks there is more depth than before. She says that they wanted to modernize “Göta Kanal”, by building humor from a darker place.
— We have jokingly called it “buskis-noir”. People fall into the water, but with a deep bottom, says Emma Molin.
The plot revolves around a couple, played by Eva Röse and Per Andersson, who are in the middle of a burning divorce. They settle over who will take over Petra’s (played by Eva Röse), dead father’s shipyard, through a classic canal race.
— It’s a kind of “household comedy”, says Per Andersson.
TT: Who is this film for?
— It’s a family film. It is for people who like humor. And divorce, says Emma Molin.
Eva Röse and Per Andersson play divorced couples in “Göta Kanal 4”. Röse and Andersson in the main roles
Eva Röse plays the same character as in the “Göta kanal” films from 2006 and 2009. She almost thought it was a joke when the question of a third turn came, 13 years after the last one.
— I thought “how many times can you really ride that boat?”.
Then she found out who would be involved in the work on the film – Rikard Ulvshammar, Per Andersson and, as she puts it, “the eternal love” Tomas von Brömssen. The fact that Emma Molin would direct was also a reason why she accepted. They have collaborated in the past and she says the two share the same sense of humor.
“It’s about musicality and timing,” says Eva Röse.
Per Andersson and Emma Molin have also worked together before, they both belong to the comedy group Grotesco. Per Andersson says that he likes to swing between different branches of the humor tree. He has done everything from a revue to a Christmas calendar – and now he is also imprinted in “Göta Kanal’s” history for all time.
“It feels epic,” he says.
His character Arvid has his thumb in the middle of his hand, is not very good at driving a boat – and is a bit of a coward.
— I hope I have a little more “balls” than Arvid. I’m also a little goofy sometimes, but not always.