Filmmaker Arvin Kananian grew up in Stockholm, Sweden and in Yokohama, Japan. In his late teenage years he moved to the UK to study law, but instead found his calling for acting and began studying Sanford Meisner and Lee Strasberg’s methods at acting schools in London and Stockholm. Kananian quickly made a name for himself in the Swedish film and TV business, becoming well known for his memorable performances in awarded and acclaimed feature films and TV shows such as Aniara (2018) and Caliphate (2020). His upcoming acting projects include Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness and Swedish Television’s Christmas Calendar.

Having worked in front of the camera for several years, Kananian felt increasingly drawn towards filmmaking. He started writing and directing and in 2017 he debuted with his first short film Affect. The following years saw the premieres of his short films Tomorrow the Birds will Sing (2018) and I, Julia (2020). The latter was among else selected for the prestigious Telluride Film Festival.

Currently, Kananian is working on a project with production company Nexiko.

Björn Natthiko Lindeblad’s I May Be Wrong enters the Sunday Times Bestseller List for hardcover nonfiction at No. 8 this week in the UK.

Just published in Iceland, Heine Bakkeid’s third Thorkild Aske installment We Shall Not Awaken goes straight to No. 1 on the bestseller lists for all books and formats of leading book retailer Eymundsson.

The second season of hit crime drama Bäckström premieres today, February 28, on C More and subsequently on TV 4 March 8.

Murder isn’t often good news. But Detective Sergeant Evert Bäckström (Kjell Bergqvist) can’t help but rejoice when he is told that Thomas Eriksson, a celebrity lawyer and his rival, has been killed. Bäckström’s good mood is however spoiled when he is assigned to the frustrating case and finds the list of people who wanted Eriksson dead to be endless.

Bäckström Season 2, directed by Andreas Öhman and Manuel Concha and written by Jonathan Sjöberg and Dennis Magnusson, is based on the novel The Sword Of Justice by acclaimed author Leif GW Persson.

Steinar Bragi’s The Disturbance is nominated for the 2022 Nordic Council Literature Prize. Instituted in 1962, the Literature Prize has since been awarded annually to a work of fiction written in one of the Nordic languages that is of “high literary and artistic quality”.

The winner will be announced on November 1^st in Helsinki, Finland.

The jury says about the The Disturbance:

“The questions that arise during the reading of this novel are the big questions on the ethics of science and the present day. Some of them are familiar: When will artificial intelligence become so powerful that it will be indistinguishable from human intelligence? If the imitation of human intelligence can be perfected, will it be more perfect than the intelligence that each of us has been given? In films and literature, conflicts are often portrayed between humans and supercomputers, cyborgs or aliens. Such clashes usually end with the human spirit winning a narrow victory, which relies on mankind’s ability to love and believe – but who says that this is not also something that can be learned?”

To read the full rationale, please click ‘Read More’ below.