MARSTRAND, Sweden, Jan 31, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – A front-line Swedish nurse is
getting some Covid downtime with a week of private screenings of the
Gothenburg film festival, in a former lighthouse off the country’s west
coast.
More than 12,000 candidates from 45 countries applied to watch the
festival’s films in almost near isolation on an island 400 kilometres (250
miles) from Stockholm.
The prize is a week viewing as many of the festival’s 70 premieres as they
like in a hotel in the former Pater Noster Lighthouse. But they will be in
isolation and will have no access to their own computer or laptop.
The bright-red lighthouse, built on a tiny island off Sweden’s west coast
in 1868, is surrounded by a scattering of squat, red buildings originally
built to house the lighthouse keeper’s family. It can only be reached by boat
or helicopter, depending on the weather.
After a series of interviews and tests, festival organisers chose emergency
nurse and film buff Lisa Enroth for the prize, in keeping with the 2021
festival’s theme, Social Distances.
Before boarding a small speedboat out to the island on the clear, chill
winter’s morning, Enroth said she had applied not only out of her love for
the cinema, but also to seek respite from her hectic work as an emergency
nurse during the pandemic.
“It has been hectic, so it’s a nice opportunity just to be able to land and
to reflect over the year,” she said.
– Months working amid Covid crisis –
Sweden, which has taken a light-touch approach to the pandemic compared to
its neighbours, has been facing a stronger than expected second wave of the
virus. So far, more than 11,500 people have died from Covid-19 across the
country.
Enroth works in the emergency ward of a hospital in Skovde in central
Sweden. Since the start of the pandemic, her hospital’s work caring for virus
patients on top of their regular workload has been intense.
“We had a lot of Covid cases during this year and every patient that has
been admitted to the hospital has been passing through the emergency ward,”
she told journalists.
The organisers said they were surprised by the numbers of applicants for
the prize but were confident they had chosen the right candidate — not only
for her love of cinema.
“She has also dedicated this past year in the frontline against the Covid-
19 pandemic,” the festival’s creative director Jonas Holmberg said to AFP.
“That’s also one of the reasons we chose her”.
– Isolated screenings –
Boarding the boat dressed in a thick survival suit, Enroth sped over the
calm, icy waters, jumping off in the island’s tiny harbour and disappearing
into her lodgings.
A screen has been set up in the lantern room at the top of the windswept
island’s lighthouse, offering a 360-degree view of the sea and coastline
around.
Another wide screen has been set up in one of the island’s buildings.
Enroth will also have a tablet and headphones if she wants to watch films
elsewhere on the island, which measures just 250 metres by 150 metres.
With only one other person staying permanently on the island — a safety
precaution — Enroth’s only contact with the outside world will be through
her video diary about the films she has viewed.
The festival’s films will be shown online and two venues in Gothenburg
itself will allow screenings for just one person at a time.
Holmberg, the festival’s creative director, said he hoped events like these
would maintain interest in the industry at a time when many screens are
closed because of pandemic restrictions.
“We are longing so much to come back to the cinemas and in the meantime we
have to be creative and do the things that we can to create discussion,” he
told journalists.