Private Project

The Long Melody

Adam, a young pianist, is adopted from an orphanage in Asia. When his single mother passes away he discovers old letters she has sent to his biological father, an American solder who deserted the Vietnam war and is hiding in the north of Thailand. He sets off on a complicated journey to find his past, his identity and ultimately himself.

  • Thomas Nordanstad
    Director
    The War Reporter, Victoria Station, Mere Shadows, The War Reporter
  • Thomas Nordanstad
    Writer
    see above
  • Anders Palm
    Producer
  • Adam Dahlstrom
    Key Cast
    "Adam"
  • Joe Cummings
    Key Cast
    "Jim Somerset"
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Den Långa Melodien
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    Drama, slow cinema
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 24 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    September 13, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    200,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Sweden
  • Country of Filming:
    Sweden, Thailand
  • Language:
    English, Swedish, Thai
  • Shooting Format:
    2.8k ARRIRAW
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1:1.85
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Distribution Information
  • TRI ART Sweden
    Distributor
    Country: Sweden
    Rights: Theatrical
Director Biography - Thomas Nordanstad

Thomas Nordanstad is a Swedish filmmaker and visual artist based in Stockholm, Sweden and Bangkok, Thailand.
As a young 18 year old he opened a art gallery in his hometown Gothenburg after befriending artists Jean Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and other 80 ́s graffiti artists during a trip to New York. The gallery evolved and in the late 80 ́s he was involved with American artists such as Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince and Barbara Kruger, as well as being the young impresario of legendary German artist Martin Kippenberger. The gallery moved to New York in 1992 and became more experimental by introducing many video artists and installations, as well as featuring several of the “YBA” ́s, for instance Damien Hirst, Mark Quinn, Sarah Lucas and Angus Fairhurst.

In 1999, Nordanstad began making films full time. The first being “Painting Pol Pot”, 2000, about the last surviving prisoner (and artist) of the infamous torture prison S.21 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. First aired on Swedish television it was then aired in 22 European and Asian countries as well as in the US.
Working with the Swedish cultural magazine-programme KOBRA, Nordanstad did a series of shorts: among others “Gaddafi’s Portrait Painter” (Libya), “Half an Angel” (Thailand), “Hashima - Lost Island” (Japan) and “Europe’s Last Forbidden Theatre” ( Belarus). He also produced and directed the short feature film “Anastasia in Love” with actress Amanda Ooms.
His first feature-length documentary was “Dictators don’t wear Jeans” (about artistic expression as a means for political change) taking place in 11 countries around the world.
“SnowWhite and the Ambassador” came 2006 after Nordanstad as head curator of a large exhibition had had art works and himself physically attacked by the Israeli Ambassador in an “international incident” that spread quickly around the world.
Nordanstad’s first international film commission was for UK Channel 4, to make a documentary about the recently murdered British- Swedish documentary photographer Martin Adler. “The War Reporter” was released in 2010 and premiered at the British Film Institute. Produced by Anders Palm.
In 2012 his and collaborator Cm Von Hausswolff's film “HASHIMA, Japan” became the official blue print for scenes in the James Bond film “Skyfall”, and Nordanstad worked as a visual production-adviser as a copy of the island of his film was constructed in England for the big budget movie.
Between 2010-13 Nordanstad also worked for Pernod Ricard- Absolut Vodka as its “Global Art Curator” producing a short film with American director Spike Jonze (“I’m here”) as well as making his own film portraits of artists David Shrigley, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Douglas Gordon and several others.
He also completed a series of four longer art-films with (with CM von Hausswolff) such as “Remedios, Colombia, 2013”, about the dangerous and crime-ridden gold mining business in Colombia.
2014-15 Nordanstad completed his documentary “The Art Of Being The First To Arrive Too Late”, 2016 on photographer Paul Hansen,
2018-19 Nordanstad completed the film “Memoria” for ARTE/ France about photographer James Nachtwey.

Tomas Nordanstad received the prestigious Harold Pinter Foundation Award 2019 for his short film “Victoria Station”, 2019 which premiered at the Harold Pinter Festival the same year. He is currently in production with “One For The Road”, also by Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter, as well as three streaming productions for The National Theatre, London.

He is currently at work on a film about the German electronic music legend Hans Joachim Roedleius, with Brian Eno, Michael Rother etc.
He is active with his production companies Borrby Studios AB, Sweden and Electric Avenue Pictures, London, for
which he recently produced a film together with Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija for TATE Modern, the museum in London.
He has directed short films, music videos in Thailand and Europe, concert films, music documentaries and current
affairs TV all over the world, notably on immigration and human rights affairs

Throughout the years Nordanstad has also written several articles in magazines in Sweden, Germany, USA, France and England, as well as lectured at art academies in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Amsterdam and London, and Yale University, CalArts, Valencia, CA, Stanford, CA, amongst others. He has written several short-stories, a novel called “Population One”, as well as organised art-exhibitions in Baltimore, New York, Paris, London, Berlin and Stockholm.

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Director Statement

The Long Melody. We decide what we are looking for through our wishes of what we hope to find, with our needs to heal,: we replace, begin new stories or improvise when the past catches up with us. We are like songs, poems, music, compositions, we look for the right to be, and right to be right to ourselves, we aim for the ears of the great unknown listener out there who one day summarises us without judgement. Were we in tune? Were we easy listening or had complex melodic structures (most of us do)? Did we stay within one key or were we transposing ourselves along the journey. Did we manage to do that wonderful lift that gets some music to take off up, up in the sky? The major lift, like when heaven composes "Hallelujah", as in the Cohen song...