I was assistant director and cameraman on the documentary ’Vera Sager. A Russian woman in Sweden’. It screened in Russia within the frame of a large-scale Swedish project named Sweden:Upgrade (The Year of Sweden) that took place in 9 Russian cities in 2006.

- film program
  from St.Petersburg

- Info leaflet on the film

Very few people, even in Sweden, know that the last owner of the Sager Palace in Stockhom – today’s official residence of the Prime Minister of Sweden was Russian – an elderly lady called Vera Sager.

Up to 1986 one could hear Russian language and Russian music from the house just opposite the Swedish Parliament. The palace was owned by the daughter of the last Consul of the Russian Empire in Sweden and the widow of the last Swedish Consul in Imperial Russia.
Young Vera’s summer vacation in Sweden in 1917 turned into exhile when Bolsheviks came to power at home. Her husband Leo Sager belonged to one of the wealthiest Swedish families. He died early and left a substantial inheritance.

Vera had it all: big money, several houses, servants. She rubbed shoulders with diplomats, industrialists, even with members of the Swedish Royal family but throughout her life she longed back to her native Russia.

The film is based on remembrances of people who knew Vera Sager personally and gives viewers a unique opportunity to get insight into places few people have seen, e.g. the residence of the Swedish Prime Minister, the Nobel Library at the Swedish Academy, behind the scenes of the Royal Opera in Stockholm etc.