Daniel Eskils

Daniel Eskils grew up in Stockholm, but was also lucky enough to be exposed to many cultures outside the Swedish capital.

“My parents drove me around Europe when I was small instead of showing me Sweden,” explains Eskils, “and I’ve lived in Rio de Janeiro and New York. I tend to do as lots of Swedes do and consume almost every culture except our own.” As a young teenager, his mother showed him the works of avant-garde directors Jacques Tati and Federico Fellini, and Eskils was immediately intrigued. “Seeing films like Mon Oncle and Blow-Up when I was that young, and was used to watching ET or The Blues Brothers, was really odd and almost provocative. I didn’t really understand much then but at the same time, I was fascinated.”

And so Eskils began his own budding directing career in his teens, but, aged 17, switched to graphic design and illustration. He followed this path for ten years until he met producer Johan Junker. The pair teamed up to form Eskils Junker Film, and have been working together ever since on everything from short films to promos to TV. And since signing to Partizan last year, the duo is now branching out into commercials too.

This recent spot for Protest Boardwear, Protest to Get There, was shot through KesselsKramer and inspired by one of Eskils’ earlier virals, called Dog-TV. In the spot a bored snowboarder walks behind a TV, suddenly appearing on its screen, and rides it freestyle out the door and across the city. The TV in the spot, explains Eskils, was actually in every frame, despite appearing to jump and glide. “We ended up building a remote-controlled steering function underneath the TV, but we couldn’t fit in an engine so we had to push the TV down the slopes, steer and film it. When the TV goes down the stairs it has skis, and when it jumps, there is an invisible man in a grey suit dancing the TV through the air.”

A confessed cinephile, Eskils ambitiously tries to watch at least one film a day, but it’s not his only source of inspiration: “Every day I do a lot of reading and research on notions I get, I look at pictures I find, I take notes on my dreams,” he adds. But right now, Eskils is keen to get back out there and work on another project. “I’m curious about a lot of stuff and I don’t want to waste any time not shooting. Hopefully I will progress and my ideas will come to life in the right projects and I’ll have fun while making it all happen.”