
Acting
Born May 24, 1925 · Västerås, Västmanlands län, Sweden
Mai Elisabeth Zetterling ( May 24, 1925 – March 17, 1994) was a Swedish actress and film director. She began directing in the early 1960s, starting with political documentaries and a short film called The War Game (1962), which was nominated for a BAFTA award, and won a Silver Lion at Venice. Her first feature film Älskande par (1964, "Loving Couples"), based on the novels of Agnes von Krusenstjerna, was banned at the Cannes Film Festival for its sexual explicitness and nudity. Kenneth Tynan of The Observer later called it "one of the most ambitious debuts since Citizen Kane." It was not the only film she made that would stir up controversy for its frank sexuality (early pioneer on voyeurism). When critics reviewing her debut feature said that "Mai Zetterling directs like a man," she began to explore feminist themes more explicitly in her work. The Girls, which had an all-star Swedish cast including Bibi Andersson and Harriet Andersson, discussed women's liberation (or lack thereof) in a society controlled by men, as the protagonists compare their lives to characters in the play Lysistrata, and find that things have not progressed very much for women since ancient times.

Sunday Pursuit
1990

Concrete Grandma
1986

Amorosa
1986

Scrubbers
1982

Love
1982

Of Seals and Men
1981

Mai Zetterling's Stockholm
1978

The Moon Is a Green Cheese
1977

We Have Many Names
1976

Visions of Eight
1973

Vincent the Dutchman
1972

The Girls
1968

Doctor Glas
1968

Night Games
1966

Loving Couples
1964

The War Game
1963
Lords of Little Egypt: Mai Zetterling Among the Gypsies
1961

Prejudice and Pride: Swedish Film Queer
2022

Regissören: En film om Mai Zetterling
2015

Meeting with Mai
1996

Minns ni?
1993

Morfars resa
1993

Sellers' Best
1992

Hidden Agenda
1990

The Witches
1990

The Making of 'Hidden Agenda'
1990

Maybe I Really Am a Sorceress
1989

Calling the Shots
1988
Stulet nyår
1978

Mai Zetterling's Stockholm
1978

My Heart Is Red
1977

We Have Many Names
1976

Visions of Eight
1973

Lianbron
1965

The Man Who Finally Died
1963

The Bay of St. Michel
1963

The Main Attraction
1962

Only Two Can Play
1962
Lords of Little Egypt: Mai Zetterling Among the Gypsies
1961

Offbeat
1961

Faces in the Dark
1960

Piccadilly Third Stop
1960

Jet Storm
1959
The Traitor
1959

Playing on the Rainbow
1958

The Master Builder
1958

The Truth About Women
1957