A Swedish Instastory of Love
short film (2020) 07:07 min
A Swedish Instastory of Love (2020) is a short, semi-documentary film following four friends getting drunk together in a tiny apartment.
Inspired by classic rock tour documentaries the film maker decides to record her own friends during a summer night in Stockholm, convinced that they can be just as interesting and entertaining as any acknowledged celebrities. But since they’re indeed neither rock stars nor on tour, not much happens during the seven or so hours of documentation. Like a TikTok in slow motion, the evening is compressed into seven minutes of what could be described as watching a simultaneously chaotic and uneventful episode of “Friends” - but set in 2020’s Sweden and with way too much sugar and beer. Or like realizing that you’ve been observing the neighbours party through the window just a little too long, yet still can’t help but linger.
Despite the apparent non-content of this short sequence of moving image, the symptoms of modern-day (single!?) life in western Europe could easily be found when understood as an historical record; how these characters ignite and (mis)behave in the encouraging presence of a camera, overconsumption as the answer, a general notion of nihilism, nostalgia as a preventive measure, a reluctance to grow up, or how it seems as if its only through the potential gaze of someone else that we can truly experience life.
But perhaps is this short film best experienced when taken simply for what it is: a pure portrait of genuine friendship.
The title A Swedish Instastory of Love is a flirt with the 1970s cult classic movie A Swedish Love Story by Roy Andersson.
