Eat Sleep Die, Sweden's Submission for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. U.S. :None Yet. International Sales Agent: The Yellow Affair
Forgotten once the promising hopefulness of youth fades away, an individual’s aspirations can mutate into broken dreams if not pursued. Regrettably, as years go by the chances of achieving those goals decreases, but the need to feel productive remains because we fear to be deemed obsolete. Caught up in the monotonous rhythm of working just to afford the imperative necessities, life runs the risk of becoming a passionless task. Thus, a meaningful purpose might be the only key to a fulfilling existence. Nevertheless, this convoluted preoccupation is perhaps more daunting today considering the current state of the world. With humor and in a modest fashion Gabriela Pichler’s debut Eat Sleep Die aims to demystify the meaning of life, and reveal it a something more profound that the sequence of the eponymous physical processes.
Tomboyish and impulsive Raša (Nermina Lukac) is a young woman living in a small town in Sweden with her ill father (played by Milan Dragisic). Originally from Montenegro, they moved to Scandinavia when she was just a baby. But despite being fully acculturated and not knowing any other home but this tight-knit community, occasionally she still feels like a foreigner. She is hardworking and a bit rough around the edges, yet utterly friendly. Employed at a vegetable packaging company, she works alongside many other immigrants from around the globe and a few locals. Raša adores these people. They have become her extended family and she always feels welcomed wherever she goes. Being so comfortable and accepted here, she can’t see beyond her manual labor job. She finds no reason to think about the future until her situation is not as certain.
Unexpectedly, her perfectly arranged microcosm is disrupted when the company announces there will be layoffs. At home, her father, whose aching back doesn’t allow him to work, is tired of being supported by his daughter. Disregarding his frail condition he decides to travel to Norway to work for a few months. Ultimately, and despite her efforts, Raša loses her job.
Feeling unproductive, and with her father gone, she roams the town unsuccessfully looking for work. The rest of her time is spent alongside her recently unemployed friends at a center where they get advice on how to reenter the workforce. Unskilled and with no education, Raša will need to consider if there is something else out there for her in the city or if she wants to live the rest of her days going aimlessly from one dead-end job to another.
Having no concrete goals and content with her routine, Raša believes this town is the only place where she can be somebody. She is afraid of finding out whether or not she can be something greater. She is afraid of discovering if life can be more than a succession of ordinary days. Such fear comes partially from her insecurity of being considered an outsider. She wants to fit in and makes it clear that regardless of her Muslim background, she belongs there. Furthermore, she doesn’t have a role model that can inspire her to defy conventions. Her father, although he loves her, is similarly adrift barely managing to get by. Therefore, unemployment turns out to be a blessing in disguise for the young lady. It drags her out of her comfort zone, and gives her a chance to grow and discover herself. Played with unpretentious charisma, Nermina Lukac's performance as Raša carries the film with relatable naturalism.
Like the best realist works Pichler’s film is never preachy not does it try to find a simple answer to its character’s dilemma. Infusing this small town story with greater global concerns, her film explores the struggle between necessity and satisfaction. Although the romanticized idea of happiness can never be fully attained, she believes everyone, including her characters, deserves a chance to exploit their potential. Still, under the yoke of responsibility their existence is reduced to a repetitive pattern of mundane activities, which ensure survival but ignore fulfillment. Unable to perceive themselves as something other than laborers, they can’t seem to accept doing anything out of sheer pleasure. Their concept of what life should be does not factor in the possibility for improvement.
Certainly a movie of its time, this is a phenomenal character study elevated by its personable protagonist. Incorporating insightful social commentary the filmmaker examines what modern society values and considers rewarding. Eat Sleep Die is a humble, but astoundingly introspective work, which in a wonderfully smart manner urges the audience to start really living before dying.
Read more about all the 76 Best Foreign Language Film Submission for the 2014 Academy Awards...
Forgotten once the promising hopefulness of youth fades away, an individual’s aspirations can mutate into broken dreams if not pursued. Regrettably, as years go by the chances of achieving those goals decreases, but the need to feel productive remains because we fear to be deemed obsolete. Caught up in the monotonous rhythm of working just to afford the imperative necessities, life runs the risk of becoming a passionless task. Thus, a meaningful purpose might be the only key to a fulfilling existence. Nevertheless, this convoluted preoccupation is perhaps more daunting today considering the current state of the world. With humor and in a modest fashion Gabriela Pichler’s debut Eat Sleep Die aims to demystify the meaning of life, and reveal it a something more profound that the sequence of the eponymous physical processes.
Tomboyish and impulsive Raša (Nermina Lukac) is a young woman living in a small town in Sweden with her ill father (played by Milan Dragisic). Originally from Montenegro, they moved to Scandinavia when she was just a baby. But despite being fully acculturated and not knowing any other home but this tight-knit community, occasionally she still feels like a foreigner. She is hardworking and a bit rough around the edges, yet utterly friendly. Employed at a vegetable packaging company, she works alongside many other immigrants from around the globe and a few locals. Raša adores these people. They have become her extended family and she always feels welcomed wherever she goes. Being so comfortable and accepted here, she can’t see beyond her manual labor job. She finds no reason to think about the future until her situation is not as certain.
Unexpectedly, her perfectly arranged microcosm is disrupted when the company announces there will be layoffs. At home, her father, whose aching back doesn’t allow him to work, is tired of being supported by his daughter. Disregarding his frail condition he decides to travel to Norway to work for a few months. Ultimately, and despite her efforts, Raša loses her job.
Feeling unproductive, and with her father gone, she roams the town unsuccessfully looking for work. The rest of her time is spent alongside her recently unemployed friends at a center where they get advice on how to reenter the workforce. Unskilled and with no education, Raša will need to consider if there is something else out there for her in the city or if she wants to live the rest of her days going aimlessly from one dead-end job to another.
Having no concrete goals and content with her routine, Raša believes this town is the only place where she can be somebody. She is afraid of finding out whether or not she can be something greater. She is afraid of discovering if life can be more than a succession of ordinary days. Such fear comes partially from her insecurity of being considered an outsider. She wants to fit in and makes it clear that regardless of her Muslim background, she belongs there. Furthermore, she doesn’t have a role model that can inspire her to defy conventions. Her father, although he loves her, is similarly adrift barely managing to get by. Therefore, unemployment turns out to be a blessing in disguise for the young lady. It drags her out of her comfort zone, and gives her a chance to grow and discover herself. Played with unpretentious charisma, Nermina Lukac's performance as Raša carries the film with relatable naturalism.
Like the best realist works Pichler’s film is never preachy not does it try to find a simple answer to its character’s dilemma. Infusing this small town story with greater global concerns, her film explores the struggle between necessity and satisfaction. Although the romanticized idea of happiness can never be fully attained, she believes everyone, including her characters, deserves a chance to exploit their potential. Still, under the yoke of responsibility their existence is reduced to a repetitive pattern of mundane activities, which ensure survival but ignore fulfillment. Unable to perceive themselves as something other than laborers, they can’t seem to accept doing anything out of sheer pleasure. Their concept of what life should be does not factor in the possibility for improvement.
Certainly a movie of its time, this is a phenomenal character study elevated by its personable protagonist. Incorporating insightful social commentary the filmmaker examines what modern society values and considers rewarding. Eat Sleep Die is a humble, but astoundingly introspective work, which in a wonderfully smart manner urges the audience to start really living before dying.
Read more about all the 76 Best Foreign Language Film Submission for the 2014 Academy Awards...
- 12/19/2013
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Berlin – Gabriela Pichler’s critically-acclaimed immigrant drama Eat Sleep Die will represent Sweden in the 2014 Academy Awards nomination race in the best foreign language film category. The drama, which premiered in Venice’s Critics' Week last year, winning the audience award, swept Sweden’s film academy honors, the Guldbagge Awards. It won the awards for best feature, best director, best screenplay and best actress for lead Nermina Lukac as the 20-year-old immigrant Rasa. Eat Sleep Die has also been nominated for one of Scandinavia’s top film honors, the Nordic Council Film Prize. Produced by China Ahlander for Sweden’s Anagram
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- 9/5/2013
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Realism trumped film noir at this year's Guldbagge Awards, with politically motivated dramas Eat Sleep Die and Call Girl dominating Sweden's equivalent of the Oscars, taking four trophies each. Gabriela Pichler's Eat Sleep Die, the story of a young Balkan immigrant in Sweden who gets laid off from her factory job, won the best picture award, with Pilcher taking both the best director and best screenplay honors. Star Nermina Lukac won the best actress prize. Call Girl, a political drama inspired by a real-life sex scandal among Sweden's top politicians, scooped up the bulk of the technical awards, including
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- 1/22/2013
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Actress Ada Condeescu who has in just a trio of films (award-winning If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle, the Cannes selected Loverboy and the much anticipated Wolf) and Arta Dobroshi’s whose stunning career resume began with the Dardenne’s Lorna’s Silence, Daniel Mulloy’s brilliant short Baby, and Catherine Corsini’s Cannes-selected Three Worlds are two of the ten names/faces who’ve been added to the list of 10 European actors selected as the 2013 Shooting Stars (annually presented at the Berlin Film Festival). Here is the complete list of ten names/faces to watch out for in European cinema:
Mikkel Boe Følsgaard: Nominated by Danish Film Institute
Laura Birn: Nominated by Finnish Film Foundation
Christa Theret: Nominated by uniFrance
Saskia Rosendahl: Nominated by German Films
Luca Marinelli: Nominated by Istituto Luce Cinecitta
Arta Dobroshi: Nominated by Kosova Cinematography Center
Ada Condeescu...
Mikkel Boe Følsgaard: Nominated by Danish Film Institute
Laura Birn: Nominated by Finnish Film Foundation
Christa Theret: Nominated by uniFrance
Saskia Rosendahl: Nominated by German Films
Luca Marinelli: Nominated by Istituto Luce Cinecitta
Arta Dobroshi: Nominated by Kosova Cinematography Center
Ada Condeescu...
- 12/13/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Cologne, Germany – The leads in Oscar contenders A Royal Affair and Lore – Mikkel Boe Folsgaard and Saskia Rosendahl – made the cut for the 2013 Shooting Stars – the showcase of the top 10 best young actors from Europe. Gallery: 28 of Berlin Film Festival's Most Outrageous Movie Posters The new Shooting Stars selection – announced Wednesday – includes French actress Christia Theret (La Brindille),Slovenia's Jure Henigman (A Trip) and Sweden's Nermina Lukac, who made her acting debut this year with Gabriela Pichler's drama Eat Sleep Die. Completing the list are Arta Dobroshi of Kosovo, who appeared
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- 12/12/2012
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
After a string of announcements, it looks like the Toronto International Film Festival have locked down their line-up and it’s looking like a fantastic slate. Much of the additions today come in the form of previous Cannes premieres, including Michael Haneke‘s Amour (review), Cristian Mungiu‘s Beyond the Hills (review), Abbas Kiarostami‘s Like Someone in Love (review), Bernardo Bertolucci‘s Me and You (review), Hong Sang-soo‘s In Another Country and the Venice premiere Olivier Assayas‘ Something in the Air. Most notably missing is Leos Carax‘s Holy Motors, but we do get a new Michael Winterbottom film titled Everyday. Out of the Discovery section, the biggest film seems to be The Brass Teapot, and indie drama starring Juno Temple and Michael Angarano and one can check out all the additions below.
Masters
Amour Michael Haneke, Austria/France/Germany North American Premiere Screen legends Jean-Louis Trintignant and...
Masters
Amour Michael Haneke, Austria/France/Germany North American Premiere Screen legends Jean-Louis Trintignant and...
- 8/21/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
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