Sweat

Sweat lets us experience three days in Sylwia Zajac’s life. She is a young, beautiful and successful training instructor and influencer, but her emotional life is not reflected in her outer life. Sylwia has hundreds of thousands of followers, but longs for true intimacy in a lonely everyday life. One day, she discovers a man spying on her from a car, and things start to happen.

Director Magnus von Horn has previously made films inspired by crime and violence, and there are traces of Horn's investigation of violence also in Sylvia's glossy world. The camerawork, which alternates between close-up portraits and cold architectural details, contributes to an eerie and alienated atmosphere, and adds an almost thriller-like quality to the film. Who is the influencer Sylwia? And what is she going to do with the stalker?

Sweat revolves around a stereotypical character in our mediated, contemporary life. But the investigation of Sylwias inner life is anything but a cliché. Sweat thematizes questions about class, and Poland's conservative politics is continuously resonating in the background.

Andrea Regine Meyer

Director

Swedish Magnus von Horn (b. 1983) studied directing at the film school in Łódz. He has won several awards for his student films, and his feature film debut, The Here After from 2015. His second film, Sweat, was selected for the Cannes Film Festival in 2020. The Girl with the Needle is his third feature film, which also premiered at Cannes.