What it's like to attend a remote Swedish film fest alone

Last month, a Swedish film festival launched a competition to give movie fan the opportunity to spend a week watching its offerings on an isolated lighthouse island. The ultimate social distancing experience for film buffs. This week it was revealed that a Swedish nurse was "the chosen one", selected from 12,000 applicants to attend the festival alone.

Göteborg Film Festival, Scandinavia's biggest film festival, has gone digital and put its entire festival online this year through an initiative called The Isolated Cinema. Lisa Enroth, a Swedish nurse, is the once-in-a-lifetime applicant who was chosen to stay on the remote Hamneskär island. "This is a dream," Enroth said in a video detailing her experience so far. "I have been chosen to stay in this marvellous place for a week, just watching movies and enjoying the nature and the serenity and the loneliness," later joking: "we'll see what I have to say about it on Saturday, in seven days... it's so strange."

Pater Noster hotel on the island of Hamneskar — The person chosen will stay on Hamneskär island © Erik Nissen Johansen

The tiny island is home to the famous Pater Noster lighthouse, and is located off Marstrand on the Swedish west coast. It got its name because the extremely hazardous waters surrounding the island inspired seafarers to read the Lord’s Prayer - Pater Noster in Latin - when their ships approached the dangerous reefs. The lighthouse was constructed in 1868 and given the name Pater Noster as a tribute to the sailors’ prayers. A new hotel opened there in September on the site of the former lighthouse master’s home, designed by Erik Nissen Johansen's design agency Stylt. This is where Enroth is staying, as a castaway left alone to watch the films for a week, though one one other person will be there for safety reasons.

Enroth has been given full access to the entire film programme at Göteborg Film Festival 2021. She has enough supplies to last until Saturday and will be transported by boat to and from the island. During her stay, she’s detailing her experience in a video diary. In a video posted today Enroth announced that she had reached a "huge step" in her isolation experience. 'I started talking to the oven, the stove, I mean," she said. "I had a long conversation and pep talk with the stove... I have started talking to myself."

This article was first published on January 8, 2021 and updated on February 1, 2021.