Marcus Lindeen, born in 1980, is a playwright and director. Before working with film and theater he was a writer and a radio producer. Regretters is his debut as a film director. He graduated in 2008 as a director from Dramatiska Institutet (The National University of Film and Theater) in Stockholm. He made his debut as a director and playwright in 2006 with the stage production of Regretters at Stockholms Stadsteater (Stockholm City Theater). The production was selected as one of the best Swedish contemporary plays by The Royal Dramatic Theater and The NationalSwedish Television. It was broadcasted on national television in 2009. Before getting into theater and film, Marcus worked as a journalist. For several years he was hosting the weekly radio show Flipper (a Swedish “This American Life”) on The National Swedish Radio. He also went to art school in Denmark and worked as a freelance writer and radio producer in New York. Right now he is writing on one new commissioned play and has two new film projects in development for 2011 and 2012. He lives in Stockholm.

Young director Marcus Lindeen tells this story only through the two men’s dialogue recorded in a film studio. Marcus has also written a stage version of the film, a play that he directed in 2006 with actors portraying Mikael and Orlando at Stockholm’s City Theater. The play has since been translated into English, French and German. A new production of the play recently opened at The National Theater in Oslo, Norway, and the German translation was selected for the FIND-festival at The Schaubühne Theater in Berlin in 2008.

Join Marcus Lindeen in conversation after his film the Regretters.

"Russia is a country struggling with a lot of homophobia. The Side by Side Film Festival is fighting to change that. I am truly impressed by the work of the festival, which seems to have formed into such an important and progressive voice and event for the Russian LGBT movement. To have my film screened in the festival is a great honor."

Marcus Lindeen