LevelK Boards International Sales on Lisa Aschan’s ‘Call Mom!’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Elsa Keslassy

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LevelK has acquired international sales rights to Lisa Aschan’s new film “Call Mom!”, a sequel to her well-received feature debut, “She Monkeys.”

Produced by Anna-Maria Kantarius (“Amateurs”) at Garagefilm Intl., “Call Mom!” follows Niki, a 35-year-old who lives like she’s 25 and is forced to come to grips with all of her relationships and past choices in life.

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Aschan said “Call Mom!” could be thought of as a “standalone sequel” to “She Monkeys” (pictured), a coming-of-age film which won the best film award at Tribeca, received an Honorable Mention at Berlin and took home the Guldbagge award for best film.

“The choice of genre was obvious to me: A movie about familial relationships has to be a comedy. I’m drawn to humor because I think it’s very much connected to pain,” Aschan said. “I’m drawn to people who use humor as a survival mechanism.”

Aschan said she traveled to Los Angeles and took a standup and improv workshop to work on the screenplay. “The experience of being on stage and feeling whether or not a joke worked was pivotal to how I approached the rest of the
writing process, working with the actors, and shooting,” said Aschan.

“Call Mom!” stars Sanna Sundqvist (“The Great Day on the Beach”), Nina Gunke (“Kingdom of Sweden”), Alexander Karim (“Zero Dark Thirty”) and Jonatan Rodriguez (“Ted – Show Me Love”). Garagefilm Intl.’s production credits includes Mikael Marcimain’s political thriller “Call Girl,” which won the Critics’ Award at Toronto, Gabriela Pichler’s “Amateurs” and Fanni Metelius’ “The Heart.”

The film is supported by the Swedish Film Institute, SVT, Film i Väst, Nordisk film & TV Fund, and TV2 Denmark. It is being released in locally in Sweden by SF Studios on Friday.

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