Swedish Theory of Love

Dir. Erik Gandini, Fasad Cine AB, 90 min, 2015, Sweden (16+)

In 1972 Swedish politicians created a manifesto of a society made up of mutually independent individuals. 40 years later, Sweden has the highest incidence of singles dying alone in Europe, and self-sufficiency has been taken to extremes. Family planning on the Internet, sperm donor needles delivered by bike courier – that’s the “love theory” for many Swedes. A visiting Swedish retiree searching for the true meaning of life finds everyday life in an Ethiopian village to be the polar opposite. Is it possible to breach the gap between the oversaturation of state welfare and a society’s willingness to survive?

Latvia opened its first sperm bank in 1999 for the purposes of treating infertility. There are currently six clinics. Even though sperm donors in Latvia remain anonymous, there still aren’t enough of them, and a unified donor registry as prescribed by the 2002 Sexual and Reproductive Health Law hasn’t been set up yet. Thus it’s impossible to control the restriction, as defined by the law, that there cannot be more than three children born in Latvia from one sperm donor. Parliamentary discussions on changes to the law are currently taking place.