Trollhättan is an industrial town of about 60,000 people on the Göta River, 75 km north of Gothenburg in western Sweden. The town grew up in the 18th and 19th centuries around the dramatic Trollhättan Falls, where the Göta drops 32 metres through a narrow rocky gorge — for centuries one of the most powerful waterfalls in Europe, and the site of some of the earliest large-scale hydroelectric power generation in Scandinavia. The falls are still the town's signature feature, though today the river is mostly diverted through the power stations and canal locks and the original falls only run during the annual summer "waterfall days" (usually in July). When they do, the effect is spectacular.
The other reason Trollhättan is known across Sweden is its industry. Saab Automobile was based here from 1947 until the company's collapse in 2011, and Volvo Aero (now GKN Aerospace) still makes aircraft engine parts in the town. More recently, the city has rebranded itself as "Trollywood" — the Film i Väst studios, founded in 1992, have made Trollhättan one of the three most productive film-making centres in Scandinavia, with Lukas Moodysson's Show Me Love (Fucking Åmål) and Together, Lars von Trier's Dogville, and most of the Swedish industry's big co-productions shot in and around the town. The Saab Car Museum and Innovatum Science Center on the former NOHAB industrial estate are the main visitor attractions; the old lock system on the Göta Canal is the other. Together with its neighbour Vänersborg, Trollhättan forms the local "Tvåstad" (twin cities) urban area.