Being son of famous film maker, was it always a bonus for you or rather a burden cos you were watched closely?

When I started making my own movies I already had long experience working as a grip with feature film production as technician, making three or four films per year already from the age of fifteen.. I didn´t see so much of my father since he was very often away but I worked closely with very famous technician who taught me his job.I was working with him for many years and I also did other stuff so I was known in the business and when I started making my own films people didn´t think of me primary as of Ingmar´s son. When I made a film according to his script which was called Sundays Children, the international attention was extreme and there were moments when I, young debutant, had problems to deal with attention. We did the big promotion tour and everywhere I was doing interviews and people always asked me questions about Ingmar.

When you were younger, did your father allow you to be on set and watch him work or he didn´t want you to interfere in his filming?

When I was 12,13,14, during summer holiday I was at the set while he made his movie. That is where I learnt the technical ropes of the job, connected with them and when I got older I was working as a professional on some of his films so it wasn´t father-son relationship in that term cos he was doing his job and I was doing mine.

Did you understand his films and film making or you rather watched movies of someone else?

When I went to cinema I tried to be as much open minded as possible and to watch anything really. I not necessarily thought logically about the movie. I think motion picture is very emotional media and it´s the same with music, literature, painting and I don´t try to think too much.

Did you actually went to study film making or your father taught you all by himself which was enough for you to start filming yourself?

No, I never studied film making and my father didn´t teach me anything. All I knew I learnt while working with film productions as technician. I worked on about four films a year and worked with good directors, as my father, and also with some bad directors I think you can learn a lot from bad directors cos you are showed how not to do things. And I would say that I learnt more from bad directors.

Would that be possible for you to say NO to film making and becoming say truck driver or teacher or your father consciously led you to follow his steps?

Hm, I don´t know. Since the age of five I was able to watch lots of movies and since twelve I was working on the set as technician. At the age of 24 I made my first short movie and I don´t think I was forced to do anything with film.Then I left film making business and I work as ambulance nurse.

You do what, sorry?

I work in emergency care and am specialist nurse. You know, I had enough of film making. I was doing documentary about ambulance crew and I followed them for one year. And when I finished this document and I was supposed to start making new film, I couldn´t do it.

I though that film making is nonsense and this is a job to do. So I went to university and studied for four years and since then I work with emergency care. I finished film making in 2002.

How did people react at your first movies? Did they try to match you with your father and were disappointed or you made a statement” This is me” and scrub off that label forever?

I have done many films that are completely different and of course I did Sunday´s Children with father because he wrote the script, but honestly I didn´t really care what people thought and said. I always did what I thought was good to do.

When you made your films, did you follow some advice which your father gave you?

No, he didn´t give me any advice. He was doing his films the way he wanted and I believe that making films is a lot to do with intuition. Every day about 500x you have to make very quick decisions so you have to go by intuition and what his influence is in my intuition I have no idea.

Do you think your surname helped you to open some doors or find better funding for your films?

I don´t think so. I never said that I am a son of Ingmar when I tried to get money for my films. You know producers always want to get their money back so who is your father doesn´t really count.

So did you show him your films when you edited them and he would tell you his judgement?

Of course he was interested to see my films when they were finished. Some films he liked very much and some films he didn´t like at all

Time has changed, people have changed, world has changed. Do you think that your father´s films will always be considered as special ones or within decade people won´t have a clue what they were all about?

I don´t know. He said that he wished films were like theater plays, they disappear once they were shown. .He is dead for ten years now, his films are still here and we don´t know if we survive as humans beings but he made his mark in film business and he invented new things and made film the way nobody did before. Directors like Lucas, Spielberg, Coppola or Scorsese, they know everything about his films. Lots of people do science about Ingmar Bergman so I think he had a big impact which will stay here. He never wanted to be famous, he just wanted to make his films. And look, now his picture is on our 100 kroner bank note.

Many directors had your father as their idol? Who was your idol?

I liked Stanley Kubrick or Roman Polanski.But I always did films the way I wanted, I never said” Ah, he did it this way, so I will follow him”.Never.

So now, when you work in ambulance, don´t you care about films at all?

Two years ago I started working with some Swedish production on two or three scripts but only as a hobby. If it goes ahead I don´t know yet.I am just working with the script. There is one project in USA I am producing, and another guy is directing and I work on script and I have two projects in Sweden and two writers writing script for me.I came up with idea and production company liked that so we are developing it.

So say, if your next film is a success would you consider coming back behind camera and finish ambulance business?

I really don´t know, Firstly, we haven´t started the project yet, producers only like the topic and idea so it´s too early to think that way. Future is always opened.. At the moment I love my job in ambulance. You know I firstly was a technician, then I was a film maker and now I am a nurse. I had these periods and always closed them behind me to devote all my energy and time to the current job, so now I live only for my ambulance job.

You know I do all from the passion. If I get it, I go for that it´s not planned idea. I just take it as it comes. You know, I was 40 years old when I decided to study at university and I attended it for four years so it was big decision, since I never studied before, I was just doing films. And I discovered that my passion is the ambulance work so I went to that. So it may happen that if in, say five years, I find new passion, I will close the door at ambulance life and will follow my new passion. I used to watch four films a week and was talking about them with my colleagues and then I went to do my ambulance documentary and thought that film is nonsense, saving lives is much better job.

So now, working as a nurse, do you try to absorb as much as you can about pure human being life since you are so close to it?

Yes, that´s the whole point, you know. I have possibility to get close to people every day.I get to their home and I see the backside of human life and it puts me into perspective of whole society. One day we get a call from royal mansion next call is from junkie´s home and everything else is between. We work in the subway train or in the field with the car crash and get in touch with ordinary people and have a contact with them for say one hour and they tell us all information about themselves and we know their whole life. All this give you an idea what is important in life and you have to learn it. It gives a good material for potential film script.

You know, I feel I am richer then I was as film maker because people need me and they take me as someone who save their life, they don´t care if I am son of famous filmmaker so I came back from glitter lime light to pure humanity and that enrich me in many ways. I was never fond of lime light anyway. I never liked the attention and stuff around film making business. I was just interested in making film, that´s all.

So why did you come over to Zlín film festival?

They approached me to come and introduce my early film from 1988.And I thought it would be good to show my daughter a children film festival. I did few interviews which reminded me of the time in film business but it was nice, nothing too big or stressful.