HBO Max orders Sofia Helin-starring Swedish sex comedy

LR: Anja Lundqvist, Elin Klinga, Sofia Helin, Julia Dufvenius

HBO Max has ordered a new Swedish comedy starring The Bridge’s Sofia Helin from Fremantle-backed Miso Film, ahead of the streamer’s launch in the country later this year.

Lust (8 x 30 minutes) is being produced by Miso Film Sweden and will star Helin alongside Anja Lundqvist, Julia Dufvenius and Elin Klinga.

The show, described as an “outrageous and painfully honest comedy”, tracks four middle-aged women in Stockholm struggling to keep their libidos alive in a sexually frustrating world.

The series is directed by Ella Lemhagen, produced by Sandra Harms and Karl Fredrik Ulfung and written by Frans Milisic Wiklund. Åsa Kalmér, Dufvenius, Helin and Lundqvist came up with the idea, while executive producers for HBO Max are Christian Wikander and Camilla Curtis.

Helin said: “When me and my friends as adults mentioned that we actually talk to each other about everything but our sex lives, we recalled Shere Hite’s groundbreaking sex survey [The Hite Report].

“It turned into long conversations with a lot of laughter. It is such a vulnerable subject and therefore so liberating to be able to laugh together. Pairing a sex study with a comedy series created a fantastic creative space and it became our series: Lust.”

Harms added: “Lust is a series about female sexuality that makes you laugh, touches you, entertains you but also shines a light on the times we live in. This project has been completely obvious to do from the day the idea was presented.”

Wikander, who joined HBO from Pinewood last year, added: “Lust represents our ambition with HBO Max to bring together brilliant creators and talent, on and off screen, to craft truly special series that offer our audiences something different.

“Firmly rooted in Sweden but centred around universal themes like sex, relationships and getting older, there is great potential for it to resonate globally too.”