S Y N O P S I S


SHE MALE SNAILS is a magic, unique and sensitive hybridfilm on the different aspects of a changing androgynous body. There are more aspects to a person than the eye can see. We spend our whole life trying to find a balance between sexual identities and a body that changes from childhood, to puberty, through adulthood.


This is a film about the struggle finding that balance and maybe peace.

Through a series of intimate bathtub conversations between the director Ester Martin Bergsmark and the writer Eli Levén, the film tells a story about survival where harsh reality get mixed up in a fictive world.


Come along on a journey to the promised land of the She Male Snails - a documentary fairytale about a human between two genders, that in order to survive creates a third one.

D I R E C T O R  E S T E R  M A R T I N  B E R G S M A R K


Ester Martin Bergsmark was born in 1982 in Stockholm. During his studies at the school of documentary filmmaking at Biskops Arnö he met Mark Hammarberg. They have been working closely together for four years, developing a characteristic and innovative style. Their projects are characterized by a will to experiment, an aesthetic drive and a skill for showing new images, rooted in today’s Sweden that pushes the envelope for the documentary genre. Their film, Swallow it (2007), was an experiment that has been described as a kick in the stomach of traditional film-making. Director Lukas Moodyson has been helping out during every step of the way as dramaturgist and creative supporter. Maggie in Wonderland (2008) is their feature film debut. In 2008 Ester Martin Bergsmark was awarded a Guldbagge (Best Swedish documentary) for Maggie in Wonderland. In 2009 he contributed to the debated feminist porn suite  Dirty Diaries with his short Fruitcake, shown on numerous film festivals.

S H E  M A L E  S N A I L S Director - Ester Martin Bergsmark


Producer - Anna-Maria Kantarius  /  Starring - Ester Martin Bergsmark, Varg Holmdahl, Eli Leven, Theo Walther


Language - Swedish w / English Subtitles  /  Length - 72 min /   Distributor - Upfront Films


Prizes


Special Mention, Message to Man Festival, St.Petersberg

Dragon Award Best Nordic Film, Göteborg International Film Festival

Audience Award,  Göteborg International Film Festival

Kodak Nordic Vision Award for Best Cinematography: Minka Jakerson and Ester Martin Bergsmark

Göteborg International Film Festival

Special Programming Award for Artistic Achievement, Outfest Film Festival


“Using bold colors and sound, the film is first and foremost an ode to life and individuality that survives and stays strong not despite but exactly because of the drab and dull surrounding universe.”

- IndieWire


a remarkable film, neither fiction nor documentary, in which director Ester Martin Bergsmark explores his both-male-and-female-nature and the brutality of a society which refuses to accept difference”

- Mike Goodridge, Screendaily.com


“beautiful and hypnotic rhythm of movement”

- Exberliner



Selected Festival History


Gothenburg International Film Festival

Sarajevo International Film Festival

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

Outfest LA

Message2Man, St Petersburg

Grimstad International Documentary and Shortfilm Festival

upcoming MIX NYC

A B O U TAbout.htmlAbout.htmlshapeimage_1_link_0
F I L M SFilms.htmlFilms.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0