Born in Chile and raised in Sweden, Lars Edman returned to South America to attend the Valparaiso Film School. There, he discovered that hundreds of kids had fallen badly ill because of toxic waste at his home town, Boliden, in Sweden. Toxic Playground (2010) was Lars’ first film based on his research. It went on to win 6 international awards, screening in over 30 international festivals and being broadcast on TV across Europe. Lars has since retrained as a speech and language therapist and now lives in the north of Norway. Arica is his second feature documentary.

William Johansson met Lars Edman at film school in Chile and since Toxic Playground has continued to work as an investigative journalist, film-maker and editor. His credits include The Essence of Terror (2013), Democracy Road (2016) and The Witness – broadcast on SVT, NRK and Al Jazeera. In 2014 William became a partner at Laika Film and Television in Stockholm, Sweden.