Swedish director Patrik Eklund, whose shorts have been Oscar nominated and awarded in Cannes, has started his first feature, Flimmer, on locations at Luleå in northern Sweden.

The Swedish Film Institute has chipped in $1.1m (SEK 8m) for the Jan Blomgren-Mathias Fjellström production for Bob Film, which Nordisk Film will release early 2012.

Written by Eklund, the $2.8m (SEK 19.4m) comedy is set in the tiny village of Gumby, “where something is bubbling under the surface – a tension between a telecoms company and a militant group of people allergic to electricity. A power cut triggers a chain reaction of mishaps, encounters and love affairs.” The cast includes Kjell Bergqvist, Allan Svensson, Olle Sarri, Jacob Nordenson, Anki Larsson, Annika Hallin and Lotti Törnros.

This year Eklund’s short, Instead of Abracadabra (Istället for Abrakadabra) was nominated for an Oscar, and his Seeds of the Fall (Slitage) – which won the Grand Prix Canal+ in Cannes - is on the shortlist for the 2011 nominations. Earlier this year Swedish public broadcaster SVT aired his first TV movie, The Russian Door (Den ryska dörren).

Meanwhile, Swedish veteran director Kjell-Åke Andersson (The Christmas Oratorio/Juloratoriet) has received $1.2m (SEK 8.5m) institute support for his new film, Somewhere else (Någon annanstans i Sverige), which Peter Kropenin will produce for Tur med Vädret. Scripted by Hans Gunnarsson, it is described as a tragicomic story of disastrous events in a small community of ordinary people which lead to break-up and change.

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