Äta sova dö

I watched this film on a recent flight from Canada and was totally blown away by the authenticity of the story, characters and setting. What I often find with films that are very 'real' ,they contain a certain amount of intense violence or tragedy but this film walks the fine line between creating some thing believable that transports you to a new place you can believe really exists without over dramatising the experience. It was so subtle and many scenarios required little dialogue to show their very deep and touching meanings. Really loved it and if you like grounded drama that shows strength through adversity without ever being predictable or 'safe' then you'll love this. First review on IMDb but I simply had to support this little gem of foreign cinema.

Raša (Nermina Lukač) lives with her father, a Muslim immigrant from the Balkans, in Sweden. She has a job on the assembly line of a food producing factory and , since his father is disabled, is the breadwinner of the family. She is content with her life, working in the day and going off with her mates for a drink in the evenings; hence Eat, Sleep, Die of the title. That is until she is laid off from her job and finds out how difficult it is to find any job as a female Muslim immigrant with no good looks in Sweden.

The film is shot documentary style with hand held camera and the performances, specially that of Nermina Lukac, are very natural and totally believable. Eat, Sleep, Die is a welcome change from the glitzy soap dramas made in Holloywood and is worth catching.

Eat Sleep Die is one of these film which gives you a real life update, and both tears you up and gives you positive view of good people struggling using their positive thinking.

We meet 20 year old Rasa, which came from Montenegro in former Yoguslavia together with her father as a refugee, to rural Southern Sweden. She is one of he most efficient workers at the salad packing factory, but is being laid off when the company has to restructure. Whith out a driving license and a father which is far from well, she struggles in finding a new job.

This is a glimpse into real working life Sweden, and real life for the many immigrants to the Nordic countries. It's everyday life, and nothing like a dream world. Still there's lot of friendship, brotherhood and love of life which gives both hope and enjoyment. Rasa is a positive girl, and when she cries it is when she is happy.

Gabriela Pichlrr has made a film which has gotten wide appraisals for it's portrayal of realism and hope amongst Swedish immigrants. Nermina Lukac does a great job, and the film won the four most important Guldbagge prizes in 2012, well deserved.

It's not an uncommon story. People get unemployed and try to find a new job. Of course on the employers conditions. This means humiliation and despair. Also common feelings which has been neglected in Swedish movies for long.

Here it's very personalized, because in reality, there's of course always a living human being behind these stories. Nermina Lukac as the unemployed girl is superb and so is her father, played by Milan Dragisic. His situation is worse, since he's worn out and hardly can work at all.

Also another aspect here. The immigrants have become the new working class. A new kind of situation.

The film is set in a small village in the south of Sweden, but could as well be taken place in any of the many depopulated villages in the North.

This flick is a small masterpiece with multiple layers and a great thorn in the eye for the hypocritical authority-Sweden! Because this is not the social realistic Sweden that we are used to see. Here we meet a Sweden so ugly, so neglected and so heartbreaking real that the only consolation for the villagers is a forced community in the local pizzeria.

The main character Ràca is played with divine passion by the yet unknown Nermina Lucac. And even though most of the actors in this film are unknown, their performances are more realistic than most I have seen in any Hollywood blockbuster. Maybe we could call it a Swedish "Winter's bone" but still it would be to compare American country music to Swedish "dansbandsmusik".

Gabriella Pilcher has with great accuracy and skill given birth to the characters and the surroundings of the small sleeping village and has created a human mosaic that forces all prejudices to burst. The film can actually be seen by both anti-racists as well as racists…!

But above all, Äta Sova Dö is a unique portrait of a female character. Never has a film portrayed a woman like that, a girl with no frills and no feminine adornments. She is just what she is: a rustic, down-to-earth girl from Montenegro with big heart and a guts that will crush every other unrealistic female roll that we have seen on film before.

See the film…. It's an order!