She Male Snails / Pojktanten

“The first time I saw Eli, I was seventeen. I saw him at a distance. Someone, who dared to be more than just a boy or a girl.” Director Ester Martin Bergsmark recounts his first impression of writer, protagonist and subject of his film, Eli Levén. From their conversations in the bathtub as kindred spirits a magical dream is being born born – a dream of a new cinematic form, of grasping identity inside an androgynous body, of childhood and of growing up. This authentic and novel documentary approaches reshaping shared fantasies into materialized images, searching through extravagant costumes, nature's eternal beauty, achy pasts and artistic self-expression as a means of survival in the borderland between reality and fiction. This visually, experimentally and intimately riveting filmic essay has been charming audiences and festival juries alike on its world tour beginning with its triple victory at the Göteborg International Film Festival. Eli and Ester will arrive at Mezipatra from Berlin, where they are preparing a new project together.