Burrowing

About the movie

Sebastian lives at home with his mother. He is eleven years old. From an elevated spot in the playground, he surveys his neighbourhood. He can see Jimmy who lives with his parents, even though he’s got a child of his own. He can see Anders, who’s just been given planning permission for a new carport. In a hollow where the surface water blends into the brook, Mischa is looking for fish. He came as a guest worker in the seventies but still hasn’t left. Sebastian sees the asphalt rotting. He sees hollyhocks eating their way into the foundations causing fractures in the concrete slabs laid directly on the ground. Weakening, confined root space, lack of water and low nutritional values. A break-up can only come through force.
Burrowing is the impressive directorial debut of Henrik Hellström and Fredrik Wenzel, the latter having been writer and cinematographer on the critically acclaimed Falkenberg Farewell. Armed with an immaculate visual style, Burrowing aims at penetrating the polished surface of middle class Sweden through the dissecting view of an eleven year old. His gaze travels from the supermarket parking lot, over lonely soccer fields and playgrounds to the neighbourhood terraces where traditional Midsummer’s Night parties are being prepared. As Sebastian watches, the nightmarishness of it all becomes more and more apparent.

Participating