My Life My Lesson
DIRECTOR: Åsa Ekman COUNTRIES: Sweden, Norway YEAR: 2014 LANGUAGE(S): Swedish SUBTITLES: German RUNNING TIME: 77 min
SECTION: Open Eyes 2015
Recommended from 9th grade upwards
SYNOPSIS
Over two years, Åsa Ekman accompanies the teenager Felicia who is growing up in difficult family circumstances. Her violent father no longer lives at home. The mother is a drug addict and incapable of looking after herself, let alone her two daughters. Felicia slides into the parental role and tries – seemingly unfazed by the problems – to keep the family together. But the burden is too much for her in the end: Her brave struggle for normality leaves its marks. She becomes alienated from her own body, thinks that she is ugly, too fat and has many psychological problems. When she has to testify against her father, she faces her biggest challenge yet.
MY LIFE, MY LESSON is a raw but warm-hearted portrait of a young woman who grows away from herself. The director Åsa Ekman accompanies her with a respectful distance and great tenderness. She does not question Felicia’s self-perception, depicts the girl behind the raw shell, and shows the price of “normality” in dysfunctional families.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cpcG6jqSSk
ÅSA EKMAN
Åsa Ekman’s film, A MOTHER’S COMEBACK (2011) premiered at the Göteborg International Film Festival and was nominated for Best Documentary and won the prize for Best Swedish Feature Film. Her short film IT’S ALL ABOUT EDITH (2008) received the Jury’s Honorary Award at Tempo Documentary Film Festival. In her short film PLAYER VS. ROMEO (2006) Ekman portrayed teenage boys from the suburb Fittja. Her DRAGKINGDOM OF SWEDEN (2002) is a cult movie amongst the LGBTQ scene as well as part of the course ’Literature of Gender Studies’ at several universities.
FILMOGRAPHY
Dragkingdom of Sweden (2002), Player vs. Romeo (2006), It’s all about Edith (2008), A Mother’s Comeback (2011), My Life My Lesson (2015)
SCRIPT: Åsa Ekman, Oscar Hedin, Anders Teigen PRODUCER: Oscar Hedin CAMERA: Iga Mikler, Åsa Ekman, Karolina Pajak EDITOR: Anders Teigen MUSIC: Josef Tuulse
PRODUCTION: Film and Tell, Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company, Giljotin, Åsa Ekman Films WORLD SALES: Ina Rossow, Deckert Distribution