Hammarberg m. fl.: Maggie../CPH:DOX 9

Hammarsberg, Bergmark & Andersson: “Maggie In Wonderland”. Andersson is Maggie, credited as co-director in this moving documentary about herself, a Kenyan woman, who lives in Malmö on the 15th floor with a balcony full of pigeons.

“It’s me telling you about my life”, Maggie says behind the camera when she points around in her flat that has the look of loneliness and trouble. How did she end up in Sweden – this is not told, what we get to know, we get from the scenes with Maggie behind the camera, or Maggie followed and observed by a cameraperson. She tells us that she suffers from not seeing her son, who is in Kenya. She tells us that she was with a man in this appartment, he was violent and got out. We see her in conversation with a not very understanding school teacher who tells her to stop school because she missed too many lessons. And in a late night street scene, she films while being attacked by someone. She repeats several times that many take her, a black woman, for a prostitute.

It is a film that goes in many directions and I cannot help asking if she has not been offered psychological help. I dont want to think the Swedish public system is so bad that nothing has been done to get out of the trauma. The film indicates nothing of that sort… The ending shows Maggie cleaning up, ready for a new start, a new year. Wishful thinking from the filmmakers side?

Sweden, 2008, 72 mins.

http://www.cphdox.dk/d1/front.lasso

Share your love
Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

Articles: 3925