After last year’s sold-out edition, the Stockholm Independent Film Festival returns to Zita Folkets bio on 25 & 26 May. Under the theme ‘Metamorphosis’, 16 indie short and feature-length films comprise a quirky programme that invites the audience to immerse themselves in the power of cinema.
An amalgam of different film genres, styles and aesthetics, this year’s selection explores metamorphosis from various perspectives. All four programmes focus on characters who are called to face transformation. Some have to shift their way of thinking while others are called to deal with life-changing relationships or to handle pivotal incidents.
“In a fast-paced world where everything keeps changing and taking unexpected turns, inner and outer alterations occur in our environment, communities and ourselves. The festival’s curatorial focus is also a nod to the medium of cinema itself. We aim to celebrate the transformative power of film, through uniquely told stories from all over the world and to recognize the transcendent communal experience of film-watching in the cinema. We hope the festival audience comes with an open mind to be transformed and discover something new about themselves and the world through the selected films.”
Apostolia Katsiantridou, Head of Programme.
The Festival opens with the Malayalam-language Indian feature drama ‘Family’, which tackles the dualities inherent in life. This feature film written and edited by Don Palathara and co-written by Sherin Catherine, focuses on appearances versus true self, the externally constructed image contradicting one’s internal thoughts and hidden motives. The film premiered at the 2023 International Film Festival of Rotterdam (IFFR).
Dedicated to indie shorts, ‘Stepping in Uncanny Realms‘ is about odd or purely magical circumstances. Nightmarish rat infestations, surprising ghost arrivals, uncanny clones, absurd talents and unpredictable friendships all disrupt the main characters’ lives and cause metamorphosis in one way or another.
The Festival’s second-day opening film, ‘Rosa’s House’ by Rosa Coutinho Cabral is about ‘Trying to Grasp the Passage of Time’. Metamorphosis as experienced through ageing, mortality, and the transient nature of existence. The film is about the director’s story of being evicted from her house. The camera serves as the guide in the process of mourning, building an archive of the house, the neighbourhood, and the people who have passed.
How do societal norms and human interventions change our world? In the last programme ‘Ordinary Life, Until It Was Not‘, social alienation, colonialism and environmental change, technology’s effect, trauma and loneliness as reasons for metamorphosis unravel through 7 short stories.
Separated into four strands, the Stockholm Independent Film Festival 2024 features films of different genres and themes all examining the different phases of Metamorphosis. It is exciting to have films by super-talented filmmakers from around the globe showcasing personal stories, cultures and social issues.
Day 1 | 25 May
Sinister Dualities | (Feature film): 18.00 – 20.00
Metamorphosis is often about the dualities and contradictions inherent in life, such as the tension between stability and change, order and chaos, or the conscious and unconscious mind. In the case of ‘Family‘, this duality focuses on appearances versus true self, the externally constructed image contradicting one’s internal thoughts and hidden motives.
▶Family, Don Palathara, 111′ • India • 2022
** Break: 20.00 – 20.10**
Stepping in Uncanny Realms | 20.10 – 21:50
Nightmarish rat infestations, surprising ghost arrivals, uncanny clones, absurd talents and unpredictable friendships all disrupt the main characters’ lives and knit this programme’s stories. Metamorphosis occurs through odd or purely magical circumstances and is analyzed through survival, transhumanism, self-acceptance, liberation, ambiguity, ethics and the complexity of human relationships. How do we react when life as we know it gets disrupted and transformed into something that requires our adaptation? How open are we to such vast changes?
▶Raticide, João Niza, 23′ • Portugal • 2022
▶Inés Unfortunately, Anna Salinas, 13′ • United States • 2022
▶Hesa Fredrik Eriksson, Karl Bergholtz, 2′ • Sweden • 2023
▶The Stranger, Tin Pak Lau, 18′ • Canada • 2023
▶Clone, Ryan M. Kennedy, 20′ • United States • 2023
▶Tennis, Oranges, Sean Pecknold, 11′ • United States • 2024
▶Reflexes, Noah Lederman Greis, 15′ • Sweden • 2023
Day 2 | May 26
Trying to Grasp the Passage of Time | 18:00 – 19:40
Metamorphosis often involves a temporal element, highlighting the theme of the passage of time, ageing, mortality, and the transient nature of existence. In ‘Rosa’s House’, we explore the transient power of time that reshapes, creates memories and bonds, and soothes and sculpts one’s identity. The documentary serves as a connotational point for the meaning of home, the emotional effects of space, and the changes that time inevitably brings.
▶Rosa’s House, Rosa Coutinho Cabral, 91′ • Portugal • 2022
*** Break: 19.40 – 19. 50***
Ordinary Life, Until It Was Not | 19.50 – 21.30
How do societal norms and human interventions change our world? Metamorphosis is explored through social alienation, colonialism and environmental change, technology’s effect, trauma and loneliness, the contradiction between staying stagnant and transitioning to a new phase, and the notions of desire and need for self-expression.
▶The Principle of Intimacy Magnus Sternegård, Andreas Eklöf, Maria Larsson, Daniel Broman 14′ • Sweden • 2023
▶Island, Michael Faust, 8′ • Israel • 2022
▶For Your Eyes Only, Sergio Angot, 12′ • United Kingdom • 2023
▶Vanja is Vacuum Packed with Kurt, Andreas Nordblom, 11′ • Sweden • 2023.
▶Rock, Nakesa Ndou, 12′ • South Africa • 2023
▶The Shift, Amalie Maria Nielsen, 19′ • Denmark • 2022
▶Flightless Birds, Hélène Dereppe, 20′ • Belgium • 2022
All screenings start at 18.00. Admission Fee: 90SEK per screening and you can get your tickets here.
Read more about the festival at the Stockholm Independent Film Festival here.
**Films are in English or with English subtitles**
