Commissioned by the Julius and Nils Westdahl Foundation, I directed a documentary tracing one of Stockholm's most remarkable family dynasties across three centuries.

‍

The story begins in the 1860s, when Julius Westdahl arrived in Stockholm on foot from Landskrona with nothing to his name. Through luck and fighting spirit, he built a bakery on Södermalm that still stands today at Bondegatan 21, and that would become the foundation of a dynasty. His son Nils became one of the great industrialist capitalists of his era, acquiring companies such as Barnängen, Ljeholmens Stearinfabrik, and Stille Werner, a medical instrument firm central to the world's first open-heart surgeries, performed in Sweden.

‍

The film is built on the genealogical research of Ebba Hedberg, Julius's great-great-grandchild, and on interviews with five of Julius's grandchildren, Ebba's parent generation, each having led remarkably different lives. Their stories take us through industrial ambition, grand careers, family conflicts, and the quiet continuity of a clan that still manages properties across Stockholm to this day.