IT IS LIT
Original title: Det är tänt
A film by Viktor Israel Strand.
Language: Swedish
Subtitel: English
Videoformat: 16:9
Length: 72 min
Color: Black and white
Year: 2023
Description:
A young man named Johan works for the Swedish government and creates permits that enable the sale of protected lands. Johan thinks a lot, he always wants to do a good job, act right and wants to be considered right in the eyes of others. He is awaiting a bonus that he has been promised. The bonus is suddenly given to another colleague, Johan continues to work with the condition which wears on his already hard-pressed psyche. He experiences a disappearance from this world with a strong anxiety.
Director, Producer & Writer
Viktor Israel Strand
Key Cast
Johan - Amund Öhrnell
Cast
Matts - Anthony Palm
Marielle - Ellen Mark
Björn - Erik Lundholm
Pontus - Björn Carlsson
Lina - Nathalie Altoray
Kristoffer - Adam Dahlström
Gul - Thomas Gjutarenäfve
Brun - Jonatan Mattisson
Neighbour - Simon Capdevila
Man - George Konstantinidis
Woman 1 - Åsa Kjellberg Nilsson
Woman 2 - Isadora Israel
Production Assistant & Sound
Isadora Isael
Lights & Props
Astta Nielsen
Therese Bulöw
Sound Design
David Gülich
Sound Design Assistant
Erik Bränström
Collaborators
Victor Rothman
Anders Strand
MArtina Strand
Markus Wallström
Johan Simonsson
Description at IFFR (International Film Festival Rotterdam)
Christian Salmon’s non-fiction book Storytelling outlines the madness of the modern neoliberal business model: constantly disrupting itself and tearing down tradition, yet demanding the total emotional investment of each worker. These conditions have definitely been internalised by the Swedish employees in It is Litand it shows in their confused, contradictory, even sociopathic behaviours. Especially in Johan, who fears every new move in the company and plots accordingly – while hearing phantom noises of long-ago building operations. He is motivated by the dream of owning a castle – but his fantasy is erected on quicksand.
Viktor Israel Strand’s black-and-white, low-budget, jump-cut heavy film shows the bleak, melancholic, nightmarish underside of satirical ‘office comedies’ like The Boss of It All (Lars von Trier, 2006). Here there is no physical office as such: as in an early Fassbinder movie, the characters meander, gather at forlorn outdoor sites and cower under the night sky. The fragmentation of the narrative mirrors the decentredness of contemporary working conditions. Eventually reality itself dissolves. Basic human interaction is, naturally enough, the first thing to suffer in this hellish regime: Johan keeps tentatively poking his companions to check if they are actually present. The Big Question: is Johan himself even present?
– Adrian Martin