Amateurs
Amatörer
Panorama | Contemporary World Cinema | High School Outreach
The council of a declining Swedish town decides to commission a video to lure a multinational retail superstore to their streets. Lacking the budget for a professional commercial, councillor Musse (Fredrik Dahl) takes the idea to the local high school, and teenager Aida (Zahraa Aldoujaili) and Dana (Yara Aliadotter) pick up their cellphones and have a go. Even though they don’t get the gig (eventually the money is found for a conventionally slick presentation) the two girls persist with their film, interviewing working class immigrants like their own parents about how a cheap supermarket would impact their lives and businesses.
With its wry humour, warm heart and sharp social observation, the energetic second feature by Gabriela Pichler (Eat Sleep Die) wittily upends clichéd assumptions about both contemporary Sweden and immigrant communities. In the process, it also spins a crafty commentary on the politics of image-making.
"One of the best films—if not the best film—at Tribeca this year…These characters’ stories may seem mundane, [but] Pichler has managed to coax something wonderfully touching out of them, and created something just as essential for an international audience as for a Swedish one."—Karen Ham, RogerEbert.com
Best Nordic Film, Goteborg 18