Westerlund wins Mai Zetterling Grant

The Swedish-Danish director Karin Westerlund received the Mai Zetterling Grant of 200,000 SEK at the opening of Göteborg International Film Festival in Sweden.

The Mai Zetterling Grant is given to a film of high artistic quality that pushes the boundaries of short films and documentaries. Director Karin Westerlund received the prize for her "joyful, courageous and daring film about what it is to be human", it says in the motivation: "With her very own cinematic style, she has explored love, the world and the invisible in films that leaves the spectator with a liberating sense of wonder. As Mai Zetterling, she has a desire to deal with the difficult and confirm the sensual."

Karin Westerlund is known for her films "The Last Stranger" (1997), "If I Give You My Humbleness, Don't Take Away My Pride" (1998), selected for Un Certain Regard in Cannes, and "Helgoland" (2000), honoured at festivals in Aspen, Melbourne and Sevilla. Her latest film, "God, Smell and Her" (2009) mixes documentary, fiction and art film in an attempt to portray the invisible: ghosts, cultural differences and love.