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Sundance, day 3: Swedish filmmaker Jenifer Malmqvist's short film "On Suffocation"

1/19/2013

3 Comments

 
by Kyna Morgan

An unsettling but important film about when a system becomes more important than a person's life. Seven minutes without dialogue. The most unsettling aspect of the film is that it could be absolutely true.

The Los Angeles Times calls Jenifer Malmqvist's film On Suffocation a "surreal study in a pristine prison inside an unnamed Islamic state where being gay comes with lethal consequences."  Malmqvist's film is in the International Narrative category of the Sundance Film Festival Shorts Program this year, and is a work sponsored by the Swedish Film Institute.  Sundance describes it as a "dialogue-free film about an execution [that] describes what happens when the system becomes more important than human life." 
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"This film was born out of equal parts [of] love and anger. I am so damn glad that it will premiere in Sundance because it's an important film and I hope it [will be seen] widely. The production was a fast pace with a wonderful team and absolutely fabulous actor. My hope is that the audience is reminded of the need to treat each other with humility" - Jenifer Malmqvist 
(Translation. Source: http://www.boosthbg.se/670-on-suffocation-till-sundance-film-festival.html)

I'm disappointed I couldn't secure an interview with Jenifer for this Sundance Series (but there might be hope yet!), especially as the premise of this film resonates with me, and treats a subject that I think is tragically ignored within the larger conversations we have -- in the U.S. especially -- about the practice of imprisonment, treatment of prisoners, LGBT rights, foreign policy and "winning hearts and minds" when it comes to so-called "nation-building" within Islamic countries. 
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Jenifer's film screens as part of Shorts Program 4 tonight as well as tomorrow, January 23 and January 26.  Refer to the schedule here and read more about Jenifer's film in the Sundance Festival Guide.
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About the Filmmaker

Writer/director Jenifer Malmqvist’s short films have been screened and awarded at festivals around the world. Both Peace Talk (2007) and Birthday (2010) have previously screened at the Sundance Film Festival. A graduate of the film directing program at the Polish National Film School in Lodz, Malmqvist was awarded a scholarship in memory of the Swedish film director Bo Widerberg in 2009. She is currently working on a short documentary and the script for her first fiction feature film.

3 Comments
Kate Kaminski link
1/19/2013 08:13:07 am

Looks good! Good luck landing the interview too.

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joey
8/16/2013 08:11:26 pm

Was so glad I got to see this at OUTFEST in Los Angeles in July. The audience started in stunned silence and other than some gasps you could hear people crying. People were talking about it for days after the screening. A very important 17 minutes or so. Brilliantly executed, no pun intended, with stunning depth and pitch perfect performances. The world needs to see this love & hate story. Breath taking.

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Isabelle
12/9/2013 01:17:15 pm

This slick minstrel show about an “unnamed Islamic state where being gay comes with lethal consequences” recapitulates age-old western fantasies about the moral perversion of Oriental cultures. Gives next-to-no consideration to the varied and complex lived realities of sexual minorities across in the Islamic world.

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