She Male Snails (2008)

Pojktanten/She Male Snails is Ester Martin Bergsmark's dreamy and contemplative documentary film (with elements fiction) about youth, gender and socialized limits. Bergsmark shows two individuals, Eli and Ester, who subvert these limits. One is a writer, the writer who wrote the book You are the roots that sleep beneath my feet and hold the earth in place. The tone of the film is reflective rather than combative. Two young people sit in a bath-tub. They are lovers, or have been. They talk about their lives, about violence and love. Both of them have withdrawn from the normative binary gender system. But what does it mean to take a stand, or to be thrown out? Instead of conjuring up a vivid image of the Outsider, Bergsmark focuses on how there is no simple inside and outside. This means that there is no final or cheerful positioning on Identity to be found here; it is as if the film moves, at least partly, on another level. The two main characters reflect on the difficulty to understand oneself. They create a fantasy world, but its not mere 'fantasy', it's also life, their encounter. She male snails is not a film revolving around talking heads and drawn-out discussions. Bergsmark has built scenes in which we get a glimpse of the two characters' lives. These are quiet scenes rather than explosive encounters. Bergsmark also evokes a mood more abstractly, using images of nature. Even though there is plenty of things to like in this film - its approach to gender fluidity is one of them for sure - what bothered me was what sometimes came out as an overwrought attempt to conjure up a Mood. The direction of these scenes appeared too unsure or even self-indulgent (for example when certain symbols very used repeatedly). Still: this is a beautiful and hypnotic film that carves out a space of its own, and does things on its own, unruly terms.