Lily Cole has been cast in 'Hilma'.

Lily Cole

Lily Cole

The 33-year-old star will be joined in Lasse Hallstrom's English-language biopic of the revolutionary Swedish artist Hilma af Klint by Rebecca Calder, Maeve Dermody and Catherine Chalk.

Lena Olin and Tora Hallstrom will also star in the movie and will play Klint at different stages of her life.

The movie is currently shooting in the Swedish capital Stockholm and Vilnius in Lithuania and explores the enigmatic life of Klint, whose unconventional art remained largely unknown for decades. She was able to navigate through a male-dominated artistic scene to become one of the West's first abstract artists.

The film is a passion project for Hallstrom, the celebrated director whose previous credits include 'The Cider House Rules' and 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape'.

Lily, Rebecca, Maeve and Catherine will play the four women who surrounded Klint and formed a group nicknamed 'The Five' which explored art, spiritualism and sexuality. The group is said to have had a significant influence on Klint's work.

Cole said: "I am absolutely delighted to be working on 'Hilma', a film which tells the story of the world's first abstract painter and the pioneering group of women with whom Hilma developed her work."

The star added that the women who formed 'The Five' "were pushing against all the boundaries of their time, exploring new concepts of spirituality, sexuality, gender and, ultimately art".

Lily said: "The art that Hilma produced as a consequence of their collaborations was unlike anything that had ever been made before, and arguably set the artistic agenda for the next century to follow."


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