Per Åhlin


Per Johan Axel Åhlin is a Swedish artist and director of animated films. He is known for his collaborations with the comedy duo Hasse & Tage, and for his own projects such as the feature film The Journey to Melonia.

Career

Åhlin started his career as an artist for the Hasse & Tage production Svenska bilder from 1964. After that he has worked on several other Hasse & Tage films, including the largely animated Out of an Old Man's Head from 1968, and The Adventures of Picasso from 1978, where he provided and animated Picasso's paintings. In 1970 he started his own animation studio, PennFilm Studio AB situated in Hököpinge, and has, as of 2009, directed eight feature-length films and several shorts, including Sagan om Karl-Bertil Jonssons julafton which is shown on television every Christmas Eve in Sweden, Norway and Finland
In 1975 at the 11th Guldbagge Awards, Åhlin won a Special Achievement award for Dunderklumpen!. In 1990 at the 25th Guldbagge Awards he won the Creative Achievement award.
Although eventually best known for his work on children's film, Åhlin was always more interested in films for adult audiences. He has commented on the difficulties of making animated films with adult themes: "I don't know whether the problem lies in the audience or the marketing. But think like this: if you draw like Picasso, Doré or Sergel, then those are images that have no connection to film. If they then would be animated and suddenly started to move - would they become children's film then? I can't understand this!"

Selected filmography

Åhlin has developed several films which have never been finished due to lack of funding or interested producers. His personal dream project, which has been in development since 1992, is the feature film Hoffmanns ögon, which is based on Jacques Offenbach's opera The Tales of Hoffmann. As of 2009, Åhlin said that he still occasionally works on the project on his own: "Hopefully it can become a few minutes which can give potential producers remorse in the future". Other unfinished films include Den magiska saxofonen, HC Andersen, and an adaptation of Eric Linklater's The Wind on the Moon, with a screenplay by Ulf Stark. Designs and other finished material from these projects have been exhibited multiple times at events in Sweden.