Nånting måste gå sönder
Director: Ester Martin Bergsmark
Writer: Ester Martin Bergsmark
Based on: Eli Levén’s book
Cast: Saga Becker, Iggy Malmborg, Shima Niavarani
Part of: Viennale

Plot:
Sebastian (Saga Becker) is androgynous, if not genderfluid, and actually spends most of hir time as Ellie. Zie is young, doesn’t know exactly who zie is yet, but zie knows that zie’s not just looking for sex – which is pretty easy to come by -, but love. Then zie meets Andreas (Iggy Malmborg) who is not gay. At all. But he feels drawn to Sebastian/Ellie and vice versa. For a while at least, everything seems to be going fine between them, but soon both of their doubts start messing with their relationship.

Something Must Break isn’t perfect but I really liked it a lot. It’s an unusually structured take on an unusual protagonist, told with a lot of warmth.

After the screening I saw, there was a Q&A with director Bergsmark in which he said that he wanted to make a film that is made from the scenes that you would remember of a first love. He perfectly accomplished that, not only with the choice of scenes but also with the general feeling of the film. And it’s such a very sweet idea to make a film like this!

Nevertheless no everything worked out for me. The film does have its lengths. I also didn’t like the camera work that much – I would have liked a calmer style, though the almost nervous moving around of the camera did fit Sebastian/Ellie’s inner life. I also would have loved more interaction between Sebastian/Ellie and zir room mate Lea (Shima Niavarani). I thought Lea was dropped a little too unceremoniously.

I was not convinced by the ending: [SPOILERS] Ellie/Sebastian sits on a hill, looking down on Stockholm. Supposedly the hill is a huge trash dump that nobody knew what to do with so it just kept piling up and finally, they just decided to make a hill of it and grow some plants on it etc. And zie is compared to that hill – somehow full of trash, but with a nice exterior. And zie may think about hirself that way – I mean, zie does have self esteem issues aplenty – but there was no need for the movie to take her side on that. I thought that was just way too harsh a note to end on. [/SPOILERS

But other than that, I really liked and enjoyed the film. Bergsmark even manages to film the most unhealthy and demeaning sex scenes in such a way that they accurately mirror Ellie/Sebastian’s inner life, are not sensationalist and despite their self-destructive nature look beautiful. Additionally, every once in a while an awesome sense of humor comes through.

It all comes together in a film that is appropriately complex for its protagonist and keeps all the certainties and uncertainties of first love in all its glory.

Summarizing: Very well done.