Experiencing Interruptions?

In Virtual Heaven

Ivan and Amora, in separate towns, suffer nightmares of their past and their failed marriage, each haunted in their dreams by their former spouse. Waking in anguish they long for love and affirmation. Purely by chance they stumble across one another on the online dating site Seventh Heaven. Their passion is immediately ignited. For a time they chat online, telephone one another, each falling in love with the other’s voice. She travels to meet him in the city, accompanied by her jealous friend Hilvu, who claims to have an errand nearby. Ivan and Amora enjoy a champagne and roses meeting at a hotel, followed by love, and a wonderful dinner at Ivan’s home. However, the following day she returns home, driven by vague concerns for her daughter, Emma.

Before long, Ivan is gripped by doubts about how they can maintain their relationship at such a distance from one another. Amora, conveys a message of hope, inspiring Ivan to travel to her for a longer visit. In this dramatic act their real and virtual identities are suddenly thrown into sharp relief; friction and quarrels result, fuelled by other, external circumstances. They return to their computers in separate rooms of Amora’s home and log-on to Seventh Heaven in order to find each other again. However, Ivan’s disappointment leads him to take an early morning train home, without Amora’s knowledge. Shortly afterwards they are reunited on the dating site and once more exchange the sweetest terms of endearment. They realise that, tragically, they are only able to fully love one another in this virtual heaven, where their identities have been somehow transformed into beguiling dream figures. Nevertheless, the opera has an unexpected and hopeful twist in the final scene.

  • Lennart Westman
    Director
  • Lennart Westman
    Writer
  • Lennart Westman
    Producer
  • Lennart Westman
    Key Cast
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    I Annan Himmel
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 50 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    March 1, 2017
  • Production Budget:
    9,500 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Sweden
  • Country of Filming:
    Sweden
  • Language:
    Swedish
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No

  • Sweden
Director Biography - Lennart Westman

Lennart Westman, has long been composing within the electro acoustic music genre, with worldwide performances of music spanning from pure tape pieces and live electronics to the unique video composition “Under Construction” (2009) in collaboration with photographer Josef Doukkali. However, his interest has in a higher degree been directed towards vocal and instrumental composition and in 2009 he completed his chamber opera “Björnen och fiolspelaren” (The bear and the fiddler), premièred in March 2010. He was also the initiator and one of two composers (Jan Sandström the other) in the national project "Dåtid, samtid - nyklang" with first performances in a dozen churches over Sweden in 2011. In 2011 he began working on his most extensive work, the opera “In Virtual Heaven", which was also shot on film during 2016, under the direction of Westman. The film production was completed in 2017.

Westman's aesthetics breathe frequently impression of literary works, and his music must therefore be considered more personal narrative than pure sound and sound-oriented, something he finds in abundance within contemporary art music. The melodic is usually present in the works and there is a prominent but also varied tonality with expressive, romantic and spiritual traits in strong contrasts.
He is a member in:
FST (Society of Swedish Composers)
ISCM (International Society for Contemporary Music)
SEAMS (Society of Electro Acoustic Music in Sweden)
The chamber music association Samtida Musik

Web site: www.lennartwestman.st

Add Director Biography