News

Sweat Sweat, All4.com, streaming now

Magnus von Horn's latest film The Girl With The Needle is heading to the main competition in Cannes this week, so this is a good chance to catch his previous outing. The interior world of a social media influencer bends and flexes beneath the surface of this determinedly ambiguous satire. You might ask who exactly is influencing whom after spending three days in the fastidiously documented world of Sylwia (Magdalena Kolesnik). She documents every inch of her day for her 600,000 followers but she finds herself emotionally rocked after a video goes viral. Von Horn questions where performances like this begin and end and to what extent laying your life out for the world paradoxically means battening your emotions in. Kolesnik is pitch perfect in the central role, keeping her character's warring feelings within touching distance.

The Night Of The Eagle, 10.10pm, Talking Pictures TV.

"I chose my own path! A misunderstood artist from the hood, doing rap, like I knew I would!" Screen has revealed the first international trailer for a Polish rap musical titled Other People, from Polish filmmaker Aleksandra Terpinska. This film is opening in theaters next week in Poland, and it already premiered at the Polish Film Festival and Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival last year. Though there's still no US distributor set yet. Starring Jacek Beler, Sonia Bohosiewicz, and Magdalena Kolesnik, the movie depicts a love triangle between a wannabe rapper Kamil and a trophy wife Iwona. Another description explains that it's an "urban drama set in contemporary Warsaw" about a love triangle between Kamil and Iwona. Adding that it's a "harsh [criticism] of today's society." Many modern Polish films have been criticizing society and many of the problems with it (also see: Never Gonna Snow Again or Sweat). This looks damn good,...

With the summer movie season underway, Cannes now on the horizon, and Tribeca kicking off this month, the film industry turns its gears again after an unprecedented near-dormancy. This month’s lineup of new releases is an eclectic mix of bold horror, mysterious romances, riveting documentaries, and much more.

15. Werewolves Within (Josh Ruben)

After making a delightful impression on Veep and I Think You Should Leave, Sam Richardson is becoming a leading man with the horror-comedy Werewolves Within, which comes from Scare Me director Josh Ruben. Also starring Milana Vayntrub, Harvey Guillén, Cheyenne Jackson, Michaela Watkins, and Michael Chernus, the film follows a small community that becomes trapped by a snowstorm and newly arrived forest ranger Finn (Richardson) and postal worker Cecily (Vayntrub) must uncover the truth behind a mysterious creature.

Where to Watch: Theaters (June 25) and VOD (July 2)

14. Sweat (Magnus von Horn)

A Cannes Film Festival selection last year,...

Set to world premiere at Cannes Film Festival year, while the event didn’t take place, the Polish-Swedish drama Sweat still earned much acclaim during its subsequent festival tour. Following a fitness influencer who is forced to confront her deepest insecurities and the exhaustive demands of her lifestyle, Magnus von Horn’s second feature was picked up by Mubi and will now arrive in theaters on June 18 and on the platform on July 23. Ahead of the release, a new trailer has landed.

Orla Smith said in our summer preview, “Sweat is one of the best films about an influencer—while other works about social media dismiss their characters as vapid, Magnus von Horn’s latest has so much empathy for fitness influencer Sylwia (Magdalena Kolesnik). Von Horn places blame on the mechanisms of social media for Sylwia’s sadness. It’s a film that peels back the masks we wear...

"I also want someone to hold hands with. To talk to... about my feelings." Mubi has debuted a new official trailer for an indie film from Poland titled Sweat, which originally premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year. It also played at the Zurich, Hamburg, Chicago, Tokyo, New Horizons, Tallinn Black Nights, and Rotterdam Film Festivals. Sweat is about three days in the life of fitness motivator Sylwia Zajac, a social media celebrity surrounded by loyal employees and admirers, who is really looking for true intimacy. It's yet another cautionary tale trying to bring to the light the honest truth about how vapid and soul-sucking social media is, and how it's easy to get caught up in the craze of the attention it brings. Magdalena Kolesnik stars as Sylwia. This also stars Julian Swiezewski, Aleksandra Konieczna, Zbigniew Zamachowski, Tomasz Orpinski, Lech Lotocki, and Magdalena Kuta. This looks like it's going to be very,...

Ben Sharrock’s “Limbo” was named the best film at the closing event Tuesday of the International Film Festival & Awards Macao. Japanese auteur Koreeda Hirokazu was bestowed with the festival’s Spirit of Cinema honorary award.

The film follows a Syrian refugee in a remote Scottish island as he awaits his asylum application to be processed and his arm to heal allowing him to play his musical instrument. It was previously selected for the Cannes festival.

The IFFAM jury, headed by mainland Chinese director Ning Hao, made a unanimous decision before awarding the $60,000 prize to Sharrock, who also won the best screenplay award. “It was a thought-provoking piece of work, because of its in-depth exploration of society and also the relationship between culture and humanity. Combined with the director’s unique film language and a modern artistic style, it magically blends together and gives the audience unforgettable pleasure and enjoyment of all senses,...

A bright and shiny character-driven drama that begins as another send-up of social media madness, Sweat at some point turns a dark, unexpected corner. Ultimately, writer-director Magnus von Horn allows that there may be some personal redemption for his heroine, a self-obsessed fitness star and influencer played with breathless muscle-flexing and almost comic self-confidence by stage thesp Magdalena Kolesnik. Her portrait of an Instagram star is so universally recognizable, it makes you forget the story is set in Poland.

The film marks a welcome step forward for the Swedish filmmaker, whose somber debut feature about a juvenile delinquent, The Here After, bowed ...

A bright and shiny character-driven drama that begins as another send-up of social media madness, Sweat at some point turns a dark, unexpected corner. Ultimately, writer-director Magnus von Horn allows that there may be some personal redemption for his heroine, a self-obsessed fitness star and influencer played with breathless muscle-flexing and almost comic self-confidence by stage thesp Magdalena Kolesnik. Her portrait of an Instagram star is so universally recognizable, it makes you forget the story is set in Poland.

The film marks a welcome step forward for the Swedish filmmaker, whose somber debut feature about a juvenile delinquent, The Here After, bowed ...

New Europe also closes deals in Australia, Spain, Baltics, ex-Yugoslavia, Hungary, Norway.

Curzon Artificial Eye has acquired UK and Irish rights to Magnus von Horn’s Sweat, sold by New Europe Film Sales.

New Europe has also sold the film, which is selected for the Cannes Label, to Australia/New Zealand (Rialto), Spain (Elamedia), Baltics (Scanorama), ex-Yugoslavia (Demiurg), Benelux (Imagine), Hungary (Mozinet) and Norway (Mer Film).

As announced prior to the Cannes Marché, Arp acquired French rights; North American rights are currently in negotiation.

Sweat is a Polish-Swedish co-production; von Horn is a Swedish-born director living in Poland. Gutek Film...

There are some movie characters who take their time to cement themselves onscreen, but Sylwia Zajac (Magdalena Kolesnik), the celebrity workout instructor and social media fiend at the heart of “Sweat,” establishes herself in a matter of seconds. Speeding through a rapid-fire workout routine in the zippy opening sequence of director Magnus von Horn’s taut and emotional character study, Sylwia wears a frozen grin as she moves through an energetic physical routine for a boisterous crowd as the camera swoops around her. There’s an inherent sensuality to Sylwia’s breathless assemblage of planks and pushups, but the balletic display buries the essence of the person beneath the surface. Her face tells a different story, with wide eyes hinting at the anxious, fragile human she’s struggling to contain for the cameras. “Sweat” evaluates that struggle as it pushes Sylwia to a breaking point.

Swedish director Von Horn’s...

There are some movie characters who take their time to cement themselves onscreen, but Sylwia Zajac (Magdalena Kolesnik), the celebrity workout instructor and social media fiend at the heart of “Sweat,” establishes herself in a matter of seconds. Speeding through a rapid-fire workout routine in the zippy opening sequence of director Magnus von Horn’s taut and emotional character study, Sylwia wears a frozen grin as she moves through an energetic physical routine for a boisterous crowd as the camera swoops around her. There’s an inherent sensuality to Sylwia’s breathless assemblage of planks and pushups, but the balletic display buries the essence of the person beneath the surface. Her face tells a different story, with wide eyes hinting at the anxious, fragile human she’s struggling to contain for the cameras. “Sweat” evaluates that struggle as it pushes Sylwia to a breaking point.

Swedish director Von Horn’s...