Artist and stop motion animator Niki Lindroth von Bahr grew up in Stockholm. In 1984, the year she was born, her parents founded the artist-operated, self-funded Nationalgalleriet (“The national gallery”) art gallery in Stockholm’s Old Town, where she herself would have her own first exhibition in 2014.
At 18, she got an apprenticeship with artist and puppet maker Arne Högsander (in whose workshop the puppets for Fanny and Alexander were created) and during her education at the Nordic School of Scenography in Skellefteå she got interested in animation while working on her graduation film En natt i Moskva (A night in Moscow, 2006), a short film featuring two self-made marionettes in the shape of a monkey and a cat, rather ”frumpily” designed (her own assessment). Her subsequent venture into animation was yet not a given outcome, but when the film was invited to the Gothenburg film festival in 2007, she decided to take the step.
Niki Lindroth von Bahr cultivated her craft at the Animation Academy in Stockholm, where she completed the two-year animation and experimental programme. She was yet again invited to the Gothenburg film festival in 2010 with the highly appreciated Tord and Tord (2010). The film would define the look she’s been identified with ever since: stop motion scenarios with great detail in every instance and nothing left to chance or coincidence and where fantasy comes to life and where even surface becomes essence. The story deals with Tord, who accidentally enters the neighbour apartment, when another Tord has just recently moved in and, quite naturally, has his name on the door. The film got a Guldbagge nomination in the 2010 animation category at the national Swedish film awards and was invited to a number of A film festivals including Annecy, Berlinale and Sundance.
Niki Lindroth von Bahr continued her fine arts studies at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, where she graduated in 2016. Bath House (2014) was completed during this period and was again shown at many of the same festivals as Tord and Tord; it premiered at Gothenburg and then went to Annecy and Sundance. The story plays out in a Gotland bathing resort, Hemse, where she herself had spent time during her childhood. Together with author Jerker Virdborg, who co-wrote the script, she explores the era of the Swedish welfare state of the 1950s and 1960s, when many a public swimming pool facility was constructed, sites that today have become worn-down and decayed, symbolizing the gradual erosion of said welfare state.
She does not shy away from political themes and messages; on the contrary, she includes them in several shapes and forms. Her characters in Bath House, all of them as always portrayed as animals, are all ”played” by extinct species. Additionally, her choice of location was determined via an urge to create something alien and unpleasant out of an everyday place. Likewise, the animals here are disagreeable rather than agreeable.
– My thinking is that an animal appearance creates a filter of distance between the viewer and the characters. That way, you are allowed to lose all focus on the appearance of the character and perhaps gain some new insights into some new aspects in the human behaviour. I don’t mind viewing my films as modern fables of sorts.
Apart from her work as a filmmaker and the various activities connected to it, she has also worked with props and sets on several other projects. Together with Niklas Nilsson she collaborated on the creation of the music video for the David Bowie track Blackstar (2015, directed by Johan Renck), where she helped to create sets, costumes and the mask worn by David Bowie in the clip, which became his last ever music video.
– One of the most exhausting things I’ve ever done, she recollects. We worked feverishly around the clock for six weeks in the autumn of 2015. That being said, it was certainly a marvellous experience, as well as a truly honourable assignment.
For Johannes Nyholm’s acclaimed short film Las Palmas (2011), she did all the puppets in the film. Nyholm reciprocated by lending his voice to one of the characters in Bath House, together with, among others, the acclaimed artist and filmmaker Carl Johan De Geer.
The Burden (2017) was awarded with the short film competition award at Gothenburg in 2017 and was also chosen for the Cannes Director’s Fortnight section the same year. Once again, Annecy invited her, and also awarded the film the Cristal award, and at the Melbourne International Film Festival it won the award for best short. Once again, a Guldbagge nomination at the national Swedish film awards was bestowed upon her. The Burden, quite possibly the most award-laden Swedish short film ever, has by now received over 50 prizes worldwide.
The Burden, with a running time of 14 minutes, took two and a half years to complete. The story takes place at a drab, generic shopping mall by a freeway somewhere in the outskirts of a mid-sized Swedish town. A place entirely aimed at consumption and without a single concern ever being shown in regard of aesthetical thought or human needs.
Again, Niki Lindroth von Bahr shows her concern for topical questions regarding society in both storyline and imagery, even though her main ambition isn’t to push any political theme. The Burden is told through characters portrayed by assorted animal species usually utilized in laboratory experiments and the theme of the film is the weariness and existential anxiety that comes with dealing with a hand-to-mouth day job, all of it performed via dancing and singing and in a style that recollects the golden age musical film genre.
– I myself have experience of jobs like these, where I sensed that time just ran out on me while being stuck in a place where you won’t evolve into much of anything. These thoughts on this kind of work, in connection with some reflections on the state of the world, became The Burden.
Niki Lindroth von Bahr’s next assignment will be as co-director of House, a Netflix series dealing with a house and three different generations of the same family living there at different times. Other directors on the project include Emma de Swaef, Marc James Roels and Paloma Baeza, winner of the BAFTA for best animated short film for Poles Apart (2018). Lindroth von Bahr is also developing an animated series together with an America production company.
– I have my mind on a David Lynch-inspired thriller taking place in the world of finances – add to that some kind of supernatural ingredient.
Freya Kilander (2018, edited 2021)
(translated by: Jan Lumholdt)
Basic info
Main profession: Director
Born: 1984
Active: 2007-
Filmography
Regi:
The House (tv-serie, segment II: Then Lost Is Truth That Can’t Be Won, 2022)
Något att minnas (2019)
Min börda (2017)
Simhall (2014)
Tord och Tord (2010)
En natt i Moskva (2008)
Manus:
The House (tv-serie, segment II: Then Lost Is Truth That Can’t Be Won, 2022)
Något att minnas (2019)
Min börda (2017)
Tord och Tord (2010)
En natt i Moskva (2008)
Idé:
Något att minnas (2019)
Min börda (2017)
Simhall (2014)
En natt i Moskva (2008)
Producent:
Tord och Tord (2010)
En natt i Moskva (2008)
Foto:
Något att minnas (2019)
Min börda (2017)
Simhall (2014)
Tord och Tord (2010)
Scenograf:
Min börda (2017)
Tord och Tord (2010)
En natt i Moskva (2008)
Klippning:
Min börda (2017)
Simhall (2014)
Tord och Tord (2010)
En natt i Moskva (2008)
Animation:
Min börda (2017)
Simhall (2014)
Tord och Tord (2010)
Redigering:
Min börda (2017)
Simhall (2014)
Tord och Tord (2010)
En natt i Moskva (2008)
Ljussättare:
Min börda (2017)
Simhall (2014)
Tord och Tord (2010)
En natt i Moskva (2008)
Rekvisita:
Las Palmas (2011)
Attributör:
Min börda (2017)
Simhall (2014)
Tord och Tord (2010)
En natt i Moskva (2008)
Dockmakare:
Min börda (2017)
Simhall (2014)
Tord och Tord (2010)
En natt i Moskva (2008)
Dockförare:
Las Palmas (2011)
Drömmar från skogen (2009)
Övrig medarbetare:
Du levande (2007)
Awards
Min börda:
Guldbaggen 2018 Bästa kortfilm
Short Cuts Award for Best International Short Film – Toronto International Film Festival
Cristal for Best Short Film – Annecy
Grand Jury Award for Animated Short – AFI Fest
Grand Prix – Anilogue Animation Festival
Grand Prix – Fredrikstad Animation Festival
Audience Award – Fredrikstad Animation Festival
Professional Jury Award – Chicago International Children’s Film Festival
Audience Favorite – Chicago International Film Festival
Shorter is Better Award – Milwaukee Film Festival
Fantastic Shorts Best Picture Award – Fantastic Fest
Award fort Best Director – Paris International Animation Film Festival
Best Film – Fantoche International Animation Film Festival
Best Animation Short Film – Melbourne International Film Festival
Best Animation – Curtas Vila do Conde
Best Composer – NeXt International Film Festival
Best Professional Film – Festival Stop Motion Montreal
Audience Award – Festival Stop Motion Montreal
Best Swedish Short Film – Göteborg International Film Festival
Audience Award – Göteborg International Film Festival
Honorary Mention – Uppsala International Shortfilm Festival
Simhall:
Grand Prix – Anima, The Brussels Animation Film Festival
Programmer’s Award – Chicago International Children’s Film Festival
Honorary Mention – Uppsala International Short Film Festival
Tord och Tord:
Abu Dhabi Film Festival – The Black Pearl Award for Best Animated Short
Fredrikstad Film Festival – Grand Prix
Fantoche Film Festival – Best Story
Curta Cinema – Best Animation
Birds Eye View – Best Short Animation
Eksjö Animation Festival – Audience Award
Nominee – best short film at Guldbaggegalan 2011