In 1972, the statutes of the Film Reform of 1963 were amended so as to give more active encouragement to production with grants being being advanced ahead of shooting. This would lead to an emergence of yet another wave of directors, though quality and talent remained scarce. Gunnel Lindblom, an actress in Ingmar Bergman's films made her debut as a director 1977 with the feature Paradistorg (Summer Paradise), which despite a schematic scenario, included some engaging conversations and a persuasive picture of the Swedish family under stress.
Another female director, Marianne Ahrne announced her own idiosyncratic style of film-making with Near And Far Away (1976). concerning an illicit love affair in a mental hospital, involving a young man who is psychologically unable to speak and a social worker, while Mats Arehn quickly proved himself deft at handling both melodramatic and comedic themes with Maria (1977), Uppdraget (The Assignment,1977) and 1980's To Be A
Millionaire.
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| The Swedish scensters of 1968 - They Call Us Misfits, |
Stefan Jarl (b.1941) would turn out two remarkable yet disturbing documentaries, They Call Us Misfits (1968) and A Respectable Life (1979) describing the punitive attitude to drug-use in what was considered a free-society. More entertaining and a perk for jazz lovers, was Sven Klang's Combo (1976), which evoked the 1950s through the soundtrack and was made by a team including members of the radical October Group and aptly directed by Stellan Olsson.