Richard Hobert (born 1 December 1951, in Kalmar) is a Swedish scriptwriter and film director.[1]
Hobert studied political science, languages and film and theatre at the Lund University from 1970 to 1973. He debuted as a radio playwright in 1974. Hobert worked as a writer and assistant director up to his debut as a director in 1978. During the eighties, he wrote and directed several TV-films, among them the internationally awarded The Twelve Months of Summer, Age Unknown and The Fifteenth Chieftain.
His debut on the big screen in 1993, Spring of Joy, was the first film in a cycle of seven, called "The Seven Deadly Sins".The stories were focused on the same Swedish family, ranging from comedy to drama and a thriller. He wrote, directed and co-produced the project during the nineties. "Spring of Joy" was awarded "The Ingmar Bergman-Prize", Bergman" with Bergman's personal motivation: "A Masterpiece". "Spring of Joy" as well as the other films in the Cycle:"The Hands", "Autumn in Paradise", "Run for your life", "The Eye", "Where the Rainbow ends" and "The Birthday" received Scandinavian and international awards. One of Swedens most prominent film critics summarized “The Seven Deadly Sins”:“In this extraordinary and beautiful film cycle, you'll find the most vibrant cast of characters in contemporary Swedish cinema.”(Carl-Johan Malmberg, Svenska Dagbladet)
In 2002, Everyone loves Alice starring Lena Endre Mikael Persbrandt Marie Richardson was a major critics' and box office success. The film won the "Best European Film" award at The Hollywood Film Festival."This powerful film is reminiscent in intensity and intimacy of Ingmar Bergman's gripping 1973 film Scenes From A Marriage" (Hollywood Reporter).His next film, Three Suns, a medieval love story, was considered a disappointment and was widely criticised.A year later, 2005, Hobert returned to the big screens with Harry's Daughters, starring Lena Endre and Amanda Ooms. The film, about the violent conflict between two sisters after the loss of a child, was generally received as a powerful comeback and praised as one of his best films ever.In the following years, Hobert wrote several theatre plays. He also directed one of them, Security, (USA: "Manhattan Security") at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm.
In 2011 he once again returned to the cinema. He wrote and directed A One-Way to Antibes starring Rebecca Ferguson and Sven-Bertil Taube .The tragicomic drama, about a half-blind widower who learns that his children have conceived an elaborate plan to get their hands on his assets before he dies—and then does a counterattack—was a big critics' success and the actor Sven-Bertil Taube received a National Award for "Best Leading Male Actor" in January 2012.The film was also very successful in the theatres, running for seven months.In 2018, Hobert made his debut as a novelist with "The Birdcatcher's Son," a dramatic story about parenthood based on a legend from the Faroe Islands. The same year, he wrote and directed the feature film based on the novel. "The Birdcatcher's Son" won the top prize, the prestigious Audience Award, at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in the USA in January 2020.His next film, "Love Proof" a drama thriller, starring Rolf Lassgård and Livia Millhagen had a celebrated world premiere at the Haugesund International Film Festival in Norway in August 2022. When it premiered in his home country of Sweden a month later, there were however very mixed reactions. The film's main theme, that both men and women in romantic relationships can be equally perpetrators and victims at the same time, faced harsh criticism, even rage, from older feminists while younger female reviewers praised the film.
Hobert was married to actress Lena Endre from 2000–2012.