''She Monkeys'' ( sv, Apflickorna) is a 2011 Swedish drama film directed by

Lisa Aschan Daria Sofia Elisabeth (Lisa) Aschan (born 28 February 1978) is a Swedish film director and screenwriter. Early life Aschan grew up on a farm in Vejbystrand. At the age of twelve, she moved to Gothenburg and then studied at a boarding school i ...

, starring Mathilda Paradeiser, Linda Molin and Isabella Lindqvist. The film focuses on psychological power struggles between two teenage girls engaged in

equestrian vaulting Equestrian vaulting, or simply vaulting, is most often described as gymnastics and dance on horseback, which can be practiced both competitively or non-competitively. Vaulting has a history as an equestrian act at circuses, but its origins stre ...

Plot

Cast

* Mathilda Paradeiser as Emma * Linda Molin as Cassandra * Isabella Lindqvist as Sara * Sergej Merkusjev as Ivan * Adam Lundgren as Jens * Sigmund Hovind as Tobias * Kevin Caicedo Vega as Sebastian

Production

''She Monkeys'' was produced as part of the

Swedish Film Institute The Swedish Film Institute ( sv, Svenska Filminstitutet) was founded in 1963 to support and develop the Swedish film industry. The institute is housed in the ''Filmhuset'' building located in Gärdet, Östermalm in Stockholm. The building, comp ...

's Rookie Project, which provided financial support for which only debuting feature-film directors are eligible. Inspirations for the film included a picture of

Shirley Temple Shirley Temple Black (born Shirley Jane Temple;While Temple occasionally used "Jane" as a middle name, her birth certificate reads "Shirley Temple". Her birth certificate was altered to prolong her babyhood shortly after she signed with Fox in ...

and the book ''

Story of the Eye ''Story of the Eye'' (french: L'histoire de l'œil) is a 1928 novella written by Georges Bataille that details the increasingly bizarre sexual perversions of a pair of teenage lovers, including an early depiction of omorashi fetishism in Weste ...

'' by

George Bataille Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 9 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels ...

. Casting of the lead actors took four months. The filmmakers needed to find girls who not only could act, but also met the requirements of the physically demanding roles.

Release

The film premiered on 31 January 2011 at the

Gothenburg Film Festival Göteborg Film Festival (GFF), formerly Göteborg International Film Festival (GIFF), known in English as the Gothenburg Film Festival, formerly Gothenburg International Film Festival, is an annual film festival in Gothenburg, Sweden and the larg ...

. Several festival selections followed, including

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

where it screened in the section Generation 14Plus,

Tribeca Tribeca (), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Stre ...

and

Karlovy Vary Karlovy Vary (; german: Karlsbad, formerly also spelled ''Carlsbad'' in English) is a spa town, spa city in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 46,000 inhabitants. It lies on the confluence of the rivers Ohře and Teplá. ...

. The earliest regular release was in France, where ASC Distribution launched the film on 3 August 2011. The Swedish release is set to 2 September 2011 through TriArt Film.

Reception

Alissa Simon of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called the film "one of the most intense and complex feature debuts to come from Sweden since

Lukas Moodysson Karl Fredrik Lukas Moodysson (; born 17 January 1969) is a Swedish novelist, short story writer and film director. First coming to prominence as an ambitious poet in the 1980s, he had his big domestic and international breakthrough directing the ...

's '' Show Me Love''", and wrote: "Aschan's provocative visual language links pleasure and pain as she focuses on the arousing nature of unpleasant things. Carefully framed compositions that are near cliche (a father cuddling his young child, a babysitter helping a youngster with tooth brushing) take on fresh significance. ... Just as remarkably, Aschan draws convincing, naturalistic performances from her young non-pro actors while putting them in highly charged situations." At the Gothenburg Film Festival, ''She Monkeys'' received the top competition prize, the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film, with one million kronor in prize money. It also won the festival's

FIPRESCI The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI, short for Fédération Internationale de la PRESse CInématographique) is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world fo ...

prize. The film received the award for Best Narrative Feature, World Narrative Competition Section at the Tribeca Film Festival. Linda Wassberg won the prize for Best Cinematography at the

Transilvania International Film Festival The Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF; ro, Festivalul internațional de film Transilvania) is the first international feature film festival in Romania, which is held annually in the historic capital of Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca. Found ...

in Romania.

References

External links

Official website
* * *
Official Mathilda Paradeiser website
{{GuldbaggeAwardBestFilm, state=autocollapse 2011 films Horse sports in film Swedish drama films 2010s Swedish-language films Best Film Guldbagge Award winners 2011 drama films 2010s Swedish films