Presenting the highs and lows of being a social media influencer

With no bodily screenings held on the Cannes Film Festival final yr, the Polish-Swedish film Sweat missed all of the extravaganza — the red-carpet appearances, photo-ops and world consideration — that comes with being an official choice for the pageant. Writer-director Magnus von Horn “terribly missed” the expertise of exhibiting Sweat, his sophomore characteristic movie, on the massive display screen to a packed viewers.
“When I was in Cannes recently, watching this year’s selection, I felt a little jealous. Now that Sweat is streaming on MUBI, I’m curious about the audience response it would garner,” says von Horn, over a video interview from Sweden.
Considered to be a breakout characteristic for von Horn, Sweat is the story of three days within the lifetime of health influencer Sylwia Zajac (essayed by Magdalena Kolesnik). Sylwia’s social media-perfect life is disrupted when she breaks down and talks about being lonely in a put up that goes viral. For somebody who revels within the public consideration, it’s deeply disturbing when a stalker DMs her about how lonely and related each of them are.
As her profitable public persona and insecurities of personal life collide, Sylwia experiences an inside shift and turns into extra accommodating of her actual self. “Some of the scenes are embedded in Polish realities even though this story is universal. I’m keen to know how the audience in different countries respond to my character,” says Kolesnik, a graduate from National Academy of Theatre Arts in Krakow.
The thought of Sweat began taking form when von Horn started watching health motivators on social media nearly obsessively and noticed “the way they made their lives into reality shows.” The Poland-based filmmaker says, “I am active in a passive way. I don’t post much. I prefer to watch.” Much to his amusement, he discovered influencers sharing loads about their on a regular basis life. There might be “20 videos of a dog playing with a rubber toy and then an emotional speech about love problems.” For the 36-year-old, it was “provocative”, making him “both hate and love” them.
For her first lead in a characteristic movie, Sweat actor Magdalena Kolesnik was a part of a prolonged collaborative course of and bodily coaching. (Photo: PR Handout)
The story of Sylwia, based on von Horn, is an “exaggerated version” of sharing one’s life. “Sylwia takes 5-10 mins to create one post. Their duration on social media is short and stories are unfinished. It does not require a beginning, middle and end. I like that narrative and think there is something fresh about it,” says the 36-year-old. He provides, “I take four-five years to make a film and that’s my post.”
In 2015, von Horn, a graduate from the Polish National Film School in Łódź, had made his first characteristic titled The Here After, which premiered on the Cannes Film Festival that yr beneath the Directors’ Fortnight class. It facilities round a juvenile offender who’s met with a chilly reception when he returns house after serving his jail time period.
The making of Sweat concerned a protracted and attention-grabbing collaborative course of between von Horn and Kolesnik. “Magdalena was the first actress we invited for casting. She was great, and then we kept looking for months without finding anyone better,” he says. When they began working collectively, what helped was that they have been on the identical web page in regards to the course of. “I was open to modifying the script together,” says von Horn. For Kolesnik, it was an attention-grabbing departure from working with a finalised script. “As an actor, it was a unique experience for me to take part in finding a solution for a scene,” says Kolesnik about her first lead position in a characteristic movie.
As the scripting progressed, Kolesnik handled Sylwia like an extension of herself. The writer-director says, even when he can be at a loss relating to Sylwia’s motion, Kolesnik appeared to know her character’s thoughts. The preparation for the movie, nevertheless, demanded way more. Though Kolesnik used to observe Ashtanga Yoga, to realize the required physique of a health influencer she needed to prepare at a gymnasium beneath a private coach for little greater than a yr. “We wanted to be as authentic as we could,” says the actor. Kolesnik says, she pertains to Sylwia’s “vulnerability” and want to be “perfect”.
Shot in 21 days, the movie had a cell crew and most scenes have been carried out in a single shot. “We wanted to be able to capture every scene in one shot. We relied a lot on our intuition. This gave the film the documentary feel that we were looking for,” says the director, who, until then, had all the time labored with strict storyboards and thoroughly deliberate scenes.
The writer-director will probably be engaged on a Danish film subsequent. Does he take a look at Europe as his taking part in subject? “I go where the story takes me. This story is set in Denmark. I’m curious to see how I will make a Danish language movie in Poland,” he says. Born in Sweden’s Gothenburg, he works and lives together with his household in Poland.
Meanwhile, he nonetheless actively follows folks on social media. “I can get sucked into it in a way that I can get lost. I have to struggle when I say I will spend less time with the phone,” he says. Kolesnik, however, has managed to disconnect from social media. “There are so many stimuli in social media. I don’t have the ability to distinguish which information is important. For me, it’s a dangerous field,” says she.