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Ester Martin Bergsmark, Something Must Break (Nånting måste gå sönder), Swedish (with English subtitles), 85min., 2014
Author, Eli Levén in person.
Dirty Looks presents the long-overdue U.S. release of Swedish trans-punk modern classic, Something Must Break (Nånting måste gå sönder), 2014, distributed by Altered Innocence. A fraught romance traces the transition of androgynous teen Sebastian (Saga Becker) and her crust punk boyfriend Andreas (Iggy Malmborg). Shot in gritty relief against the industrial edges of Stockholm. Andreas grows volatile, as this love stresses his het identity and Sebastian slips deeper into gender play. Written by Eli Levén and directed by Ester Martin Bergsmark (She Male Snails), this Golden Tiger-winning film is a bold work of contemporary Scandinavian queer cinema and based off the 2010 novel, You Are the Roots That Sleep at My Feet and Keep the Earth in Place.
Eli Levén is a Swedish novelist and screenwriter born in Södertälje, Sweden, in 1984. His literary debut Du är rötterna som sover vid mina fötter och håller jorden på plats (You Are the Roots That Sleep at My Feet and Keep the Earth in Place) was adapted into the award-winning film Something Must Break, co-written with filmmaker Ester Bergsmark. Levén and Bergsmark have also collaborated on the experimental documentary She Male Snails. His second novel, Hur jag skulle vilja försvinna (How I Would Like to Disappear), was published in 2020. He is currently spending time in New York working on a third novel.