“The Not-So-Golden Age of Swedish Silent Cinema? Historiographies of Isepa (1926–1928).”

Isepa AB was a short-lived subsidiary to Svensk Filmindustri set up in 1926 to produce a series of internationally co-produced films with a cosmopolitan appeal, all for the purpose of revitalizing the dwindling Swedish national cinema. What concept of national cinema did Isepa articulate? How did the project fit into the larger context of transnational film culture? And what does a reception history of the Isepa films – from enthusiasm to neglect and derision to rediscovery and reevaluation – reveal about biases and blind spots in the historiography of Swedish silent cinema?