Martin Munthe

Martin Munthe was born Karl Martin Emanuel Söderberg in Malmoe, Sweden in 1970. His biological father is Lasse Söderberg a poet who brought writers like Octavio Paz to the attention of the Nobel Prize in Literature through his translations to Swedish. His mother Ingrid was a model and Munthe spent his early childhood in Paris. His mother shared an apartment with super model Twiggy and as a baby he was surrounded by people like Roman Polanski and Miles Davis in the fashion circuit of Paris. Anette Lykke Lundberg, a now famous Swedish film editor, was his babysitter in Paris and later - when his mother moved back to Sweden - Rolf Sohlman had him follow around different movie sets - in particular the movies of Hasse & Tage. His stepfather Lorne Munthe de Wolfe, a Swedish pop star, entered early in his life and he had a baby sister, Lisa Munthe, who is also a director. Munthe grew up in Stockholm and initially wanted to become a cartoonist. But through a childhood friend in school he started making Super 8 movies. His friends father was film director Jonas Cornell and the family where neighbors to actor Gösta Ekman. The director and actor was in the process of making the very first Jönssonligan movie. Munthe has been making films ever since that period and started his first production company at the age of 20. Art, writing, film and music played center stage in his family. His grandparents, both artist, was close friends to Harry Schein who founded the Swedish Film Institute. But living in the city of Stockholm as a teen Munthe claims his finally decided on a career as a filmmaker in his late teens after having small "elevator talks" with his then neighbor Stellan Skarsgård on what made movies interesting and good. In the 90's Munthe was one of Swedens most established music video directors working with many stars of that era of the Swedish pop exports. Denniz Pop - who founded Cheiron Studios where producer Max Martin got his start - took a liking to Munthes videos and he worked with many of the producers surrounding that time and place - like Dr Alban. For several years in the 90's Munthe tried to have his first feature film produced starring actor Ernst-Hugo Järegård. A passion project that never saw fruition. In 2000 Munthes first feature film Hjärta av Sten was released theatrically. Munthe has been heavily involved with visual effects and emerging digital technologies for his entire career as well as working in the advertising industry. He has been working in many roles like second unit director and cinematographer and have worked with most of the current successful Hollywood Swedes. Hjärta av Sten introduced actor Michael Nyqvist to the screen and re-introduced actor Brasse Brannström after a twenty year long hiatus from the movie industry. He is married to film critic Emma Gray Munthe and has a daughter named Ava.