X&Y

About the movie

Artist, filmmaker, and actress Anna Odell has opted to once again focus on herself for this exploration of the self and the other, of boundaries and (gender) identity. Who are we in our own eyes, in those of our lovers and, above all, those of strangers? Alongside actor Mikael Persbrandt, she invited six other renowned Scandinavian actors to play both their alter egos. Scriptless, they are free to discover how they interrelate, which mainly causes confusion. What and who is real? There is hard work underway on a mysterious art film in various purpose-built spaces with producers, crew and agents beavering away in the background. This leads to erotic, intimate, slow, and comedic scenes. The ostensible lack of vision, inappropriate behavior, and mutual frictions make the rehearsals increasingly difficult. Or was that precisely the point?—Ulf Kjell Gür