Flight of the Eagle

Flight of the Eagle Swedish Ingenjr Andres luftfrd is a 1982 Swedish biographical drama film directed by Jan Troell, based on Per Olof Sundmans novelization of the true story of S. A. Andres Arctic balloon expedition of 1897, an illfated effort to reach the North Pole in which all three expedition members perished. The film stars Max von Sydow as S.A. Andre, Sverre Anker Ousdal as Knut Frnkel and Gran Stangertz as Nils Strindberg. DutchSwedish songwriter Cornelis Vreeswijk plays the role of the journalist Lundstrm.

The early drafts for a script were written in 1977, and the same year a team consisting of Jan Troell, the producer Bengt Forslund, the original writer of the novel Per Olof Sundman and a few other people went to Spitsbergen for location scouting. Troell was at the time in the postproduction process of his film Bang, and when Bang was selected for the 1977 Cannes Film Festival, the plan was to use the festival to attract investors. However, Bang was poorly received and the interest faded even from the Swedish Film Institute. The project was put on hold and Troell went to the United States to direct Hurricane, an assignment he was offered after the previous director Roman Polanski had suddenly left the country to avoid sentencing for unlawful sexual intercourse with a thirteenyearold in Los Angeles.When Troell returned to Sweden, and the film institute had gotten Jrn Donner as its new managing director, the project was revived. In May 1979 the new writing process started, this time led by Georg Oddner and Klaus Rifbjerg, with Donner himself as producer. The financing was difficult, not least because it coincided with the making of Fanny and Alexander, at the time the most expensive Swedish film ever made. ........

Source: Wikipedia