Swedish Publishing Icon Inspires Project by ‘Waltz for Monica’ Screenwriter

Elsa Keslassy

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Peter Birro, the successful Swedish screenwriter of “438 Days” and “Waltz for Monica,” has partnered with prominent journalist and producer Christina Birro to develop the screenplay for “Elda & Amelia,” a story inspired by the life and career of publishing executive and businesswoman Amelia Adamo and her mother.

Naima Abed and Emilie Georges, whose production and co-production credits include “The True History of the Kelly Gang”, “Seberg” and “Call Me by Your Name,” have boarded “Elda & Amelia” as associate producers and partners in the creative development.

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The film will follow the journey of two women, Amelia and her mother, a former housekeeper, as they travel the world hand-in-hand, going from Italy and Sweden, moving up the social ladder from working class to executive lounges, and ultimately testing the limits of a woman’s success.

“We were truly taken by Elda and Amelia Adamos story, a larger-than-life tale of a poor Italian housekeeper and her daughter who became one of Scandinavia’s most powerful and controversial publishers,” said the screenwriters Christina and Peter Birro, who previously penned the jazz biopic “Waltz for Monica” which won four Guldbagge awards (Sweden’s equivalent of the Oscars) in 2014.

“As we immersed ourselves into the parallel story of these two women, we were continuously surprised and awed by how they defeated the many odds stacked against them, be it poverty or patriarchy,” the Birros said. “Elda’s bravery and resolve paved the way for her daughter, and Amelia is such an ambiguous and complex delight, which always makes for the most interesting characters in film.”

Frequently nicknamed Sweden’s Oprah, Amelia Adamo has been credited for revolutionizing the conventional Swedish media landscape with her fierce independence and her own brand of female empowerment.

“I don’t go around thinking of my life as a film,” she said. But “I have on several occasions said that my life would make for a great story. I’m of course both proud and flattered but most of all touched. Touched that Peter and Christina picked up on the Italian mother-daughter bond: fierce, angry but always loyal.”

During her long career, Adamo was feature editor for one of Sweden’s biggest daily newspapers, Aftonbladet, and later took over the female youth magazine VeckoRevyn as editor-in-chief. She then created the lifestyle magazine “Amelia,” and followed this up in the early 2000s with “Tara and Mappie,” a lifestyle magazine targeting older women.

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