The Observer - 04.08.2019

32

The Observer Critics

04.08.19

Film

Critics

In at the

deep end

In her stunning debut feature,

Swedish director Isabella Eklöf

offers an unfl inching examination

of a drug dealer’s inner circle

Film of the week

I am struggling to think of a

colder piece of fi lm-making than

this stunning debut feature from

Isabella Eklöf , the Swedish co-writer

of last year’s Border. A pitiless

study of a trophy girlfriend joining

the “family” of her drug kingpin

boyfriend at his villa on the Turkish

Riviera, Holiday makes the worlds

of Michael Haneke look cuddly and

inviting, the work of Ulrich Seidl

seem positively jolly. Captured by

a cautious camera that maintains

a dispassionate distance, Eklöf’s

characters are observed in the same

way that a nature documentary

studies the jostling for status in a

particularly savage group of pack

animals. Violence – sexual, physical

and psychological – is a fact of life

in this ecosystem.

It’s the fi lm’s unfl inching

approach to its steely core of violence

and power-play, in particular a

harrowing, nearly unwatchable rape

scene, which makes it such gruelling

viewing at times. In a director’s

statement, Eklöf, who co-wrote the

fi lm with actress and screenwriter

Johann e Algren , said : “I always aim

to be ruthless in telling a story... to

not look away from the rawest, most

vulnerable parts.” I have watched

Holiday three times now, and while I

admired it more with each viewing,

it doesn’t get any easier.

In the role of Sascha , Victoria

Carmen Sonne aims for honesty in

the performance over engendering

empathy. She’s a diffi cult character

to warm to: shallow, venal,

watchful, Sascha is mindful of

her precarious status as the “new

girl” of gangster Michael ( Lai Yde ).

We get the sense that there have

been many before her. She drifts

on the periphery of his circle of

hangers-on: the dumb muscle,

the crowing yes men and the

brash blond molls. The only time

she becomes fully engaged and

animated is when she locks eyes

with herself in the mirror, trying out

come-hither pouts on her refl ection.

Her boyfriend is a capricious

ruler over a fi efdom of clowns

and jesters; his moods dictate the

atmosphere in the villa. Woe betide

anyone who misreads them. Sascha

quickly learns to sense the warning

signs. But hers is a world in which

everything has a price tag. And

Sascha’s self-worth is measured in

male appreciation. When Michael

withdraws his attention, she drapes

herself hopefully over his turned

back, then temporarily transfers her

focus and basks in a fl irtation with

Thomas ( Thijs Römer ), a Dutch man

Victoria Carmen Sonne

as the ‘shallow, venal, watchful’

Sascha in Holiday.

Holiday

(92 mins; 18) Directed by Isabella

Eklöf; starring Victoria Carmen

Sonne, Lai Yde, Thijs Römer,

Adam Ild Rohweder

Wendy

Ide

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