After four years in the making, Stina Bergman‘s Die Beauty is ready to face the world.
This full-feature film written by Åsa Björklund was premiered on September 17, 2010 at the Rio Cinema, SWE Museum and at The Pirate Bay on the web. Since its release, Die Beauty had appeared on international film festivals such as the Camerimage Festival in Poland and the Barcelona Creative Commons Film Festival.
As described by its makers, the film is a surreal thriller in a feverish fairytale world. A story about friendship, alienation, family ties and kindred blood. It revolves around five redhead girls living in a small village by the river looking for something to happen. They figured a dead body would be exciting and just like in fairytales, wishes do come true.
Bergman’s approach was seamless and subtle. She sews a complete montage of the family’s lives without resorting to sappy melodramatic scenes.
What makes this film strong is its brilliant touch on gender roles and adulthood. The women here are empowered. They learn to fight and maneuver their own lives without depending on a husband, or a man. This switching of power roles adds depth to the simple village life.
I am at awe how each scene earns its sentiments without getting over manipulative and preachy. The film manages to show the absurdity of the dysfunctional adult world and how children view it.
Overall, Die Beauty is a remarkable and ground-breaking film for the Swedish and Indie movie industry. It proved that there’s also good in not conforming to Hollywood traditions. By releasing it on the world wide web, the potential audience is limitless. The piece of art will travel to different parts of the world instead of confining it within a big screen.
The film with non-Swedes subtitles is available at The Pirate Bay. The beautiful artwork is done by the amazing Karin Broos, check out more of her Die Beauty paintings in the film’s Facebook page.
Related Links:
Die Beauty’s Official Website
Die Beauty on Twitter
Die Beauty on Facebook
