Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Tomas Alfredson started his movie career by working as an assistant at Svensk Filmindustri. He spent a couple of years directing music videos and another couple of years starting up Swedish television…( read more) channel TV4. At TV4 Tomas was part of building the entertainment department and initiated several long term successes such as “Fort Boyard”.

After his time at TV4 Tomas spent the next few years at SVT, the Swedish public broadcaster, with popular television series such as “Ikas TV-kalas” and entertainment show “7 till 9” together with legendary television producer Bo Rehnberg. In the early nineties Tomas directed his first television series for SVT´s drama department, “Bert”, a hugely successful family entertainment series. When the popular character was taken to the big screen in 1995 in Bert – den siste oskulden (Bert – The Last Virgin), Tomas was nominated to a Guldbagge Award for best director (the official Swedish film award, awarded annually since 1964 by the Swedish Film Institute).

By the end of the nineties Tomas became part of Killinggänget (a Swedish comedy group consisting of Sweden’s most prominent comedians) when he worked on their production Fyra små filmer (Four Little Films), four one-hour long, free standing films. The media satire Gunnar Rehlin – en liten film om att göra någon mycket illa, the romantic comedy Ben och Gunnar, the film about the world’s worst documentary filmmaker På sista versen and finally the mocumenatry Torsk på Tallinn that has become a television classic, winning both Swedish and international awards.

The collaboration with Killinggänget continued with the stage production “Glenn Killing på Grand – lite sång, lite dans, lite naket” and the next year the humorous web site “Spermaharen”. In 2004 Tomas directed Four Shades of Brown which was Killinggängets first feature film. The film was won four Guldbagge awards and Tomas was awarded best director. In the fall of 2009 Tomas will make his debut as a director at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm together with Killinggänget.

Tomas Alfredson has also had a long collaboration with author Klas Östergren which started with the critically acclaimed series “Offer och gärningsmän”, and a few years later “Soldater i månsken”. Most recently they created the 2006 Christmas calendar television show “En decemberdröm” for SVT. During 2007 Tomas directed Hur tänker hon? featuring comedian Johan Rheborg and sold out at Lisebergsteatern, Rival , China teatern and Circus.

Less known facts about Tomas are his cooking talents and that he was an awkward sing-along host together with Jonas Gardell at Vasateatern.

In 2001 Tomas Alfredson was awarded the price of the Swedish Film Critic Association and the scholarship of the Elisabet Sörenson memorial foundation. —Flixter.com

Interview with Tomas Alfredson