ONCE YOU SHALL BE ONE OF THOSE WHO LIVED LONG AGO

Press & Industry Screening: Sat, 16 August, 15:10 PM | Vue Omni 10
World Premiere:  Sun, 17 August, 16:15 | Filmhouse 1
Screenings: 

Directors Alexander Rynéus & Per Bifrost are available for interviews.

ONCE YOU SHALL BE ONE OF THOSE WHO LIVED LONG AGO by writers-directors Alexander Rynéus & Per Bifrost is world premiering at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2025 in Competition Features. Set in the slowly disappearing town of Malmberget in northern Sweden, the documentary explores what remains when a place vanishes – not only physically, but emotionally and culturally.

Built atop one of Europe’s largest iron ore mines, Malmberget is being dismantled piece by piece, leaving behind boarded windows, demolished homes, and empty streets. Yet amid the ruins, life continues – quietly reshaping itself as nature begins to reclaim the land. At the heart of the film are the town’s last remaining residents, holding on to a sense of home even as the ground beneath them collapses. Their personal stories speak to broader global realities: communities across the world being erased by industry, climate change, and political decisions.

The filmmakers, who began their artistic relationship with Malmberget in 2013 with “Malmberget – The Home and the Cavity”, returned in 2019 to document the town’s dissolution. Their follow-up, “Fragmented Times” blends poetic observation with emotional intimacy, capturing lives in transition with tenderness and atmospheric detail.

Structured like memory – fragmented, textured, shaped by mood – ONCE YOU SHALL BE ONE OF THOSE WHO LIVED LONG AGO drifts between melancholy, absurdity, and resilience. It is both a farewell to a vanishing town and a meditation on the enduring human need for place, identity, and meaning.

SYNOPSIS
In a small mining town in the north of Sweden we witness a melancholic, humorous and sometimes absurd last epoch of a place. Beneath the town’s fading streets lies one of the world’s largest underground iron ore mines – an engine of both prosperity and disappearance. The film is about farewell, change, and the transient nature of life, told through the experiences of some of the towns last residents. As the town faces its final days, it becomes a setting for deeply personal stories of loss, transition, and remembrance told trough a kaleidoscope of moments.

Directors Per Bifrost (1987) and Alexander Rynéus (1987) are a documentary filmmaker duo from Sweden. Bifrost and Rynéus studied documentary filmmaking together at Biskops Arnö, Sweden. Bifrost has studied screenwriting at Alma Education, and Rynéus holds an MA in Fine Arts from Konstfack, Sweden. Bifrost and Rynéus feature-length debut „Giants and the Morning After“ (2018) premiered at CPH:DOX and was nominated for the DOX:AWARD. The film was released in cinemas in Sweden, world sales by Syndicado Film. Their earlier work consists of award-winning short and mid-length documentaries that have been screened at various film festivals around the world. The duo has participated in DOK.Incubator, 12 for the Future, Sheffield Meet Market, Nordic Pitch – Below Zero and Visions du Réel-Pitching. They have directed five films together, which have been screened/broadcasted on SVT, Netflix, Amazon Prime, YLE, VG, and RAI.

ONCE YOU SHALL BE ONE OF THOSE WHO LIVED LONG AGO is produced by Iris Film, Andreas Emanuelsson, Sweden. In co-production with SVT, Filmpool Nord and Film i Dalarna, in association with Intakt and with support from The Swedish Arts Grants Committee and The Swedish Film Institute.

The local release in Sweden is scheduled for 2026.

Production Company:
Iris Film
Andreas Emanuelsson
andreas@irisfilm.se
+46 703 56 36 49

95 min. / Sweden 2025 / documentary

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