16/02/2011

Lisa Aschan’s directorial debut She Monkeys [+see also:
trailer
interview: Lisa Aschan
film profile], which premiered yesterday in Berlin’s Generation 14Plus section, is a subtle and sensuous power play between two teenage girls set in the elegant world of equestrian vaulting. The top winner at Göteborg (see news) is also a hot title at the European Film Market.

She Monkeys centres on teenager Emma (Mathilda Paradeiser) and her seven-year-old sister Sara (Isabella Lindquist), who are being raised by their single father (Sergej Merkusjev). Emma enrols in an equestrian vaulting course whose shining star is the pretty and charismatic Cassandra (Linda Molin) and the two girls immediately become friends. Then an ambiguous sexual and psychological game starts between them.

At first Cassandra is in command, setting the rules. Then Emma gradually gets the upper hand. She challenges Cassandra on an intimate level by making her jealous and in the horse-riding ring by competing for a place in the championship team. Their power game reaches a climax and turns into a violent act of which Emma, the perpetrator, comes out triumphant.

Meanwhile, the precocious Sara engages in her own monkey business to grab the attentions of her teenage cousin Sebastian, the babysitter, with whom she’s in love.

Aschan plays with the codes of the thriller and the modern western, in which animals’ and people’s mind control is interconnected, and the erotic charge in the images – shot close to the skin and lit with blue glazes, warm brown and beiges by Danish/Swedish upcoming cinematographer Linda Wassberg – feels like the Scandinavian answer to early Bigas Luna and Pedro Almodovar films.

Teenage actresses Paradeiswer and Molin give convincing performances, as does Lindquist, who brings the right natural and innocent tone to the ambiguous and taboo situations she has to enact.

She Monkeys was produced by Helena Lindholm for Atmo (Metropia) in co-production with Film i Väst, the Swedish Film Institute and Swedish broadcaster SVT. The Yellow Affair, which represents the title in Berlin, said that the film has already sold to Norway (Arthaus) and Sweden (Tri Art Film), and heated negotiations have started for US remake rights.