Lena Einhorn (born 19 May 1954) is a Swedish director and writer and former physician.

Early life and family

Einhorn was born on 19 May 1954 in

Spånga Spånga is a community and parish in the borough of Spånga-Tensta in Stockholm County, Sweden. Background Spånga was an independent municipality until January 1, 1949 when most of it was merged with the City of Stockholm, with smaller por ...

, Sweden. Her mother, Nina, escaped the

Warsaw ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...

during World War II and settled in Sweden, and her father, Jerzy, was a cancer specialist, politician and

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

survivor who wrote in 1966 a book about what he had experienced. Her younger brother is doctor and author, Stefan Einhorn.

Career

After graduating from the

Karolinska Institutet The Karolinska Institute (KI; sv, Karolinska Institutet; sometimes known as the (Royal) Caroline Institute in English) is a research-led medical university in Solna within the Stockholm urban area of Sweden. The Karolinska Institute is consist ...

in Stockholm with a doctorate in virology and tumor biology, she worked as a doctor, specialising in tumour viruses and the causes of cancer in fetuses and newborns. She changed careers when she lived in the United States in the 1980s and began working as a medical editor at

Lifetime Television Lifetime is an American basic cable channel that is part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, a subsidiary of A&E Networks, which is jointly owned by Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company. It features programming that is geared toward ...

where she also produced and wrote medical documentaries. She also produced scientific and medical documentaries for independent companies and for

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

until she returned to Sweden in 1994. She became an independent filmmaker after returning to Sweden. Her 1998 drama documentary, ''Handelsresande i liv'', focused on rescue efforts during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and was the foundation of her first novel, also called ''Handelsresande i liv'', which was published in 1999. A month after both of Einhorn's parents were diagnosed with incurable cancer in late 1999, she did a filmed interview with her mother about her experiences of the

during the

. Einhorn's plan was to make a feature film with her mother as the narrator however, she was not able to secure funding before her mother died in 2002 so she decided to write a book instead. She managed to secure funding six months later and released both a film and a book called ''

Nina's Journey ''Nina's Journey'' ( sv, Ninas resa, pl, Podróż Niny) is a 2005 Polish-Swedish drama film written and directed by Lena Einhorn. The film won the Guldbagge Award for Best Film and Best Screenplay at the 41st Guldbagge Awards. Story The fil ...

''. The film won the

Guldbagge Award The Guldbagge Awards ( sv, Guldbaggen, en, Gold scarab) is an official and annual Swedish film awards ceremony honoring achievements in the Swedish film industry. Winners are awarded a statuette depicting a rose chafer, better known by the nam ...

for

Best Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

and for Best Screenplay and the book won the 2005 August Prize. Einhorn co-wrote her first play, ''Living Room'' with Anette Sallmander. It premiered in 2008 at

Kulturhuset House of Culture (Swedish: Kulturhuset) is a cultural center situated to the south of Sergels torg in central Stockholm, Sweden. The House of Culture has been described as a symbol for Stockholm as well as of the growth of modernism in Sweden. ...

in Stockholm. She released the film, ''A Lost Artwork'', in 2012 which followed a two year long search for six paintings which were looted by Nazis from her father's childhood home in Southern Poland. Einhorn has written two books hypothesising an alternative understanding of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus - ''The Jesus Mystery'' in 2007, and ''A Shift in Time'' in 2016. Einhorn is a member of the

Vetenskapsforum COVID-19 The Vetenskapsforum COVID-19 (English: "COVID-19 Science Forum") is a self organized group of 40 Swedish scientists and medical professionals. It has been active in Swedish and foreign media, criticizing the Swedish government's approach to con ...

, a group critical of the Swedish government's response to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden The COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden is part of the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). As of , there have been confirmed cumulative cases and deaths with confirmed COVID-19 in Swed ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Einhorn, Lena 1954 births Living people Swedish women physicians Swedish women film producers Swedish virologists 20th-century Swedish physicians 20th-century Swedish women writers 21st-century Swedish women writers Karolinska Institute alumni