Jörn Donner
Born: Helsinki, Finland, 5 February 1933.
Finnish director, producer, writer and actor. Donner began his career as a film critic in the early 1950s, publishing pamphlets, novels and travel books as well as a biography of Ingmar Bergman. He co-founded the Finnish Film Archive in 1957, established his own production company in the 1960s, and worked as head of the Swedish Film Institute and the Finnish Film Foundation in the 1970s and 1980s. Donner is now an active film producer, award-winning novelist and a member of the Finnish Parliament (representing the Swedish People’s Party). Donner’s first Finnish feature as a director was Mustaa valkoisella / Black on White (1968), in which he also played the leading male role. In 69 (1969), Naisenkuvia / Portraits of Women (1970) and Anna (1970), Donner used women’s predicaments to underline his criticisms of the Finnish welfare system. His later features are “case studies” of sexual harrassment (Män kan inte våldtas / Men Can’t Be Raped, 1978) and corruption in the busines world (Dirty Story, 1984). In Sweden, Donner produced, among other films, Bergman’s Fanny och Alexander / Fanny and Alexander (1982).
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