Elina Sahlin
Bye Bye Boredom
Bye Bye Boredom
SE
2024, 78', sv
Age 12+

 

"Feelings are like fireworks – they explode and disappear whenever they please," Jackie, a country girl, reflects on her week. Her favourite explosion of emotions comes from MDMA, which she takes once a week, and the wild ride of these blue pills can always be tamed with sleep meds. It’s her "fireworks show" whenever Jackie wants it. With her best friend, Nova, they often muse that what they do now will mean nothing in the future, but the idle boredom between horses, tractors, and the same faces is abruptly interrupted by tragedy. When Nova tries drugs provided by the local postman Kasper at a party, she dies. Young Jackie, overwhelmed with grief and guilt, is ready to challenge fate and find out what really happened on that fateful night.

A story of neglected, bored young souls – those yearning for a life that hasn't yet begun. Addiction, codependency, and destruction are explored with remarkable balance against the picturesque backdrop of Sweden's rural west. This piece by Sahlin, showcased at the Gothenburg Film Festival, forgoes pathos, superfluous scenes, or parading along theme highways. In the seemingly simple, unpretentious setting, the relationship spiral between the two main characters (played by Kiwi Casslind and Maja Waessman) feels like an intimate teenage diary – full of emotional surges, rejections, secrets, and the deepest desires that we only reveal to our closest friend. One of the most striking films to capture the fragile points of adolescence in recent Nordic cinema, it resonates deeply with a shattering honesty that punches the viewer straight in the gut.