BURROWING (MAN TANKER SITT)
Sweden, 2008, 87 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Fredrik Wenzel, Henrik Hellstrom.
There is a touch of Swedish melancholy in this brief film set in moments of twilight.
It opens with a paradoxical quotation from Thoreau's Walden – about being ashamed of what is good in most people and repenting of it while relishing the bad. Audiences will be trying to see whether this applies to the group of characters presented in a housing estate by a woods and a creek.
The initial voiceover is by 11 year old Sebastian who throughout the film relishes being in water - even after wandering off in his formal clothes from a neighbour's 50th birthday party. He is a loner. He imagines and he thinks. The English title of the film comes from his statement that his head, unlike an animal's snout and front paws, is an 'agent for burrowing', intellectual burrowing – and an enigmatic final freeze frame as he decides on which is the right place to burrow in the creek. We are left with the 'Why?' and the 'What for?'.
Sebastian lives with his mother and, while seeming to love her and obey her, he is also mischievous in stealing (and denying it) her prized watch which he throws down a drain.
As the screen shows a kind of Google Earth map of the estate, Sebastian explains about Anders who runs and is building a carport. He explains migrant worker, Mischa, 30 years in Sweden now and also a neighbour, who searches for fish and is cheeky (literally) to householders.
Most interesting, and making the film worth seeing, is Jorgen Svensson as the 25 year old Jimmy who lives with his parents (but is not allowed a house key) and has a baby son, Silas, on whom he dotes. Never has there been such a maternal father - carrying, hugging, kissing, wandering the woods, taking Silas to the creek to get used to being in water, changing his nappy in a supermarket parking area and resisting being reported to welfare.
No plot to speak of. Miniature glimpses.
1.A Swedish production? Homes, the streets, the woods? Supermarkets? The town atmosphere?
2.The musical score, the chance, the theme of serenity and lack of serenity?
3.The initial quotation from Thoreau? Its tone? Good and bad in people? Repenting of the good rather than the bad?
4.The title, Sebastian’s explanation of his ‘agent head’? Burrowing in the river? Intellectual burrowing to understand people? Burrowing under the foundations – which were rotten – of the houses? Of society?
5.Sebastian, the initial voice-over, the expression of enigmas? His mother calling, going to meals? The stealing of her watch, his lies, throwing it down the drain? Dressing for the party? Bored at the party, wandering off? His age, character, loving being in water, being wet, the comments finally about burrowing? His information about the people in the town?
6.The estate, the kind of Google map and Sebastian’s explanation of where people lived? Seeing through Sebastian’s eyes – and then beyond? The film and the characters taking a life of their own?
7.Anders, his house, his rages, running, building a carport, fighting?
8.Mischa, coming to Sweden in the 1970s, working in the factory, old, fishing, mooning the neighbours, searching for fish?
9.The various neighbours, their life, suburban? The fiftieth birthday party for Jimmy? Their work in their gardens?
10.Jimmy and his story, his age, living with his parents, not having a key? His son? Wanting to borrow keys? The kind neighbour looking after him and the baby? His being bored, his parents arriving home? His later anger, hitting the man with the paddle?
11.Silas, the baby, no mention of the mother? Jimmy and his continually carrying the baby, hugging and kissing, changing in the carport with the woman from social welfare criticising? Able to calm Silas’s crying? In the woods, losing his shoe? Naked in the water, accustoming Silas to being in water? The maternal aspects of Jimmy’s love for his son?
12.The cumulative effect of these miniature portraits – and the microcosm in this suburban estate?
