See Shame on Dry Land (Syndabocken, dir. Sweden, 2023), a “tight and engrossing thriller” (Cineuropa) from director Axel Petersén, on April 10!
After a decade in exile, Dimman (Joel Spira) arrives in Malta just in time for the wedding of his former best friend and business partner Fredrik (Christopher Wagelin) and his wife-to-be Sara, both members of the Swedish online gaming community, surprising both with his arrival. Dimman has come to apologize for vanishing years earlier, leaving Fredrik to clean up the fallout of their business collapsing — something that Fredrik has no interest in forgiving. Disgraced and anxious, Dimman turns to his next task repaying a favor to his sugar mama Kicki, who sets him on a mission to keep tabs on Swedish tax authority investigator Krumm, who is snooping around the island’s Swedish expat community. As Dimman is torn between shadowing Krumm and absolving himself with Fredrik, his romantic ideals of friendship clash with the cynicism of permanent exile. And in his desperate pursuit of redemption, he soon finds himself on a wild goose chase paved with lies, deceit and bloody murder.
“That rare bird of sensual fusion of commercial Hollywood and European arthouse sensibilities…a challenging little number that will keep you on your toes” (ScreenAnarchy).
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Axel Petersén (b. 1979, Stockholm) is a filmmaker who has made a variety of feature and short films, video and photography installations; exhibited in galleries and institutions, shown at film festivals and cinemas worldwide.
Photo by Josua Enblom