Fjällnäs is Sweden’s oldest high-mountain hotel. But this is not a film about a hotel. It is a film about Lars and Kina Bertmar, who own it, and the life and philosophy that made the place what it is.
It is also a documentary that pays its way all year. While we film the story, Fjällnäs gets everyday content for its own channels.
[Quote from Louise Bertmar, Marketing Director, Fjällnäs. To be added.]
Louise Bertmar, Marketing Director, Fjällnäs
The starting point
Hotels tend to sell facts: the rooms, the spa, the restaurant. Everyone has those, so the competition ends up on price. Fjällnäs is an experience, and an experience is much harder to show.
Isak Lysfoss, who has worked with Fjällnäs on marketing for about three years, saw a documentary as the way to show it. The film has to make people want to stay, without ever pushing it.
A film about people, not a hotel
Lars and Kina are in their eighties. Their life, and their way of seeing things, is in every corner of Fjällnäs. So we chose to portray them, with the hotel as the backdrop.
Facts about a hotel can be copied. The people who made it can’t. They are also what a guest remembers, and what a brochure can never show.
Story first
- Finding the story. On the first two visits, Robin went alone, without a fixed story. The interviews with the family were done on the very first one.
- Building it. Between visits, we edited a rough skeleton of the film. It showed what the story needed and what was still missing.
- Filming what it needs. In early October 2026 we went back as a team of four, with a shot list built from the skeleton edit. Everything on it was filmed, on schedule.
A documentary that delivers all year
Robin keeps track of the story and the documentary. Isak Lysfoss keeps track of what Fjällnäs needs for its everyday social media, and makes sure it gets filmed along the way.
Sometimes the two pull in different directions. A sauna heater can be exactly what the feed needs, and nothing the story about the people needs. That tug of war is part of the point: with one person answering for each, neither the film nor the content gets dropped.
It also changes how a documentary can be paid for. Instead of committing a large budget and waiting a year for a film, Fjällnäs gets content throughout the year, working in their channels long before the documentary is finished.
What it becomes
- A documentary about Lars and Kina Bertmar, and the family that runs Fjällnäs today.
- Short films and clips for Fjällnäs’s social media throughout the year.
- A shared image and film bank the hotel can use in its own channels.
- A behind-the-scenes film on Robin’s YouTube channel, about how it was made.
Why it works
A film about people is one that people choose to watch. It gives guests something to share when they try to explain why Fjällnäs is different, and it does it without a single line about features.
And because content goes out all year, the documentary doesn’t have to carry everything on its own. It becomes the long version of a story Fjällnäs is already telling.
The film is in production and will be shown here when it is finished.
