Roslagen in Film and TV

Roslagen in Film and TV

Long before the word "film tourism" existed, the islands of Roslagen had already played leading roles in beloved Swedish classics. Here, film crews searched for the perfect archipelago idyll — and found it. Many of these locations can still be visited today, and some look almost exactly as they did on filming day.

Pippi Longstocking at Sea — Norröra and Söderöra

Pippi Longstocking at Sea is something quite unusual: the only one of Astrid Lindgren's stories written directly for TV, with the book coming after the series, not the other way around. This comedy-drama in thirteen episodes was directed by Olle Hellbom and premiered on Saturday, January 18, 1964. It was such a success in Sweden's single-channel television era that several actors — among them Torsten Lilliecrona and young Maria Johansson as Tjorven — described how difficult it was to move forward in their careers afterward; they were quite simply "Pippi Longstocking people".

That the story takes place here is no coincidence. Astrid Lindgren wrote it after thirty summers in the archipelago, after her in-laws bought a summer cottage in Furusund in Norrtälje Municipality. The fictional island Pippi Longstocking's Island is in reality Norröra — chosen by a film crew that searched from a helicopter for an island matching the script. The Melker family's summer cottage, "Snickargården", still stands on the island; the house was moved here from the neighboring island of Svartlöga in the early 1800s.

Many of the winter scenes were instead filmed on Söderöra, and two of the actors lived very close to their workplace: both Torsten Lilliecrona ("Uncle Melker") and Eva Stiberg ("Märta") owned summer cottages there. The islands' history is older than that — in the 14th century, Norröra belonged to the estate of Penningby, and the village was burned down by Russians during the raids of 1719 before being rebuilt.

Today only a couple of families live permanently on Norröra (around 1900 there were sixteen). Since April 2006, the island has been served year-round by Waxholmsbolaget, and during the summer archipelago guides have led tours pointing out exactly where Uncle Melker fell in the water and where the notorious wasp nest was located.

A Mooring at the Dock — Crayfish Party in Öregrund Archipelago

The Swedish comedy classic A Mooring at the Dock (1965) — AB Svenska Ord's second feature film, directed by Tage Danielsson — takes place on the fictional island "Ensamholmen". The archipelago scenes were filmed on and around the island Högdunsen in Öregrund Archipelago, in Östhammar Municipality. The cast includes Monica Zetterlund, Lars Ekborg, Birgitta Andersson, Gösta Ekman and Hans Alfredson as the grumpy loner Garbo. The film won both the Chaplin Prize and a prize in Barcelona in 1966, and later became a recurring fixture in Swedish Television's schedule for decades — for many a tradition as fixed as the crayfish party it depicts.

From Silent Film to the Present

Film history in Roslagen stretches back to the silent film era: Limping Lena and Cross-eyed Per was filmed on Skarpö as early as 1924 and The Boys on Storholmen on Storholmen off Vaxholm in 1932. Later came Children of Frostmofjället (1945) in the Åkersberga area, and in modern times parts of Lasse Hallström's thriller The Hypnotist (2012) were filmed in Danderyd. Cedergrenska Tower in Stocksund has also appeared in Swedish television.

Sources: Swedish Wikipedia and Wikidata (information about filming locations, production and years). Cover image: Norröra (Wikimedia Commons).