Greetings readers, near and far ( I think potentially FAR in this case!). As time has gone on, I find myself (via the far-reaching world that is the Twitter-verse) ultimately in some contact or at least “Follow” status with several indie film sites, actors, and filmmakers. And let me say, it is really cool! To know there are films being made out there in this world by SO MANY different people in SO MANY different places in their film career, it’s been a unique journey so far to come in contact with them. In this case, I ended up being sent a “screener” copy of a Swedish production to view and review here. So taking the opportunity to do this, I give you….”Amber (I Am My Own)”.
SEE THE TRAILER HERE
Written, produced, and directed by Stockholm, Sweden native, Johan Bergqvist, the story takes us into the world of Mans (Christoffer Latvala), usually known only as “M”. He is one unsavory character, very focused on keeping himself the priority outside of anyone else, including his apparently long-suffering girlfriend, Sanna (Isabelle Gagnefur), who only wants his attention, even as he initially ignores her until finally giving in. However, even then, it’s devoid of any real emotion or commitment. His life is drugs, drug dealing, and simply being a criminal in both heart and action. When a random deal goes bad, M flees to the Swedish countryside, leaving everything and everyone behind, making sure to do what it takes to cover his tracks. Contacting a friend to arrange his getaway whilst also delivering a last batch of a potent new drug, he happens upon an unexpected accident scene in his path, which he mostly ignores. As police roadblocks become an obstacle to his plans, M makes a decision to return to the scene and USE what he finds to his own ends…a one year old child, whom we find out is named Alva (Leia Bergqvist). Posing as a regular family man, M begins to make his way across the countryside, breaking in where needed and taking whatever he wants. When things get worse with an unexpected run-in at the home he’s commandeered, and the search being on for both him AND the accident victims, his tolerance of an ultimately unwanted travel partner starts to fray, though M manages to find creative ways to deal with it. He takes up with another “friend”,Teres (Sabina Heitmann), who wastes no time in taking advantage of M’s fragile state to create even MORE chaos for him. With almost everything gone, desperation truly begins to set in, but M still cannot help but gain what he requires through the means he’s used to, despite the child with him. He attempts to rid himself of the issue altogether, but yet again, a situation forces them back together. A radio report about police searching the accident scene and knowing this means it’s now known Alva is missing, M decides to cut his connection with her completely and permanently. Not to be, however, as yet other circumstances occur preventing him from being done with her. Finally managing to reach his boss, Petri’s (Roland Nordqvist) home, M’s escape seems ultimately set, even at the price of his own drug contacts being given up to Petri. But, when Petri then offers a decidedly DIFFERENT kind of deal, which M initially accepts, we begin to see perhaps that M has made a fatal decision. More reports come out, now involving a plea from Alva’s father (played by the director himself), and M takes it upon himself to try and right a wrong. Heading back to Petri’s house, unknowingly stumbling into an unrelated police raid while at it, revelations come and the finale spirals towards its inevitable conclusion, with M realizing too late that his care for a little girl was deeper than even he would have thought.
Taking only 16 days to be shot, and initially made, per Director Johan Bergqvist, as “an experimental project for me at first” during his second year of film school on top of being a new father, I personally have to give the effort a solid “I liked it!”. The thing about this type of indie film is that we are honestly talking almost NO budget. So while most indie films we see that get theatrical release may seem small budget at $12-30 MILLION, there are these, the TRULY indie projects, that are lucky to have ANY budget. And for that, I salute the cast and crew of “Amber (I Am My Own)”, because this was made out of a passion and desire to simply MAKE A FILM, make it THEIR WAY, and ENJOY doing it! And hence the beauty of independent cinema. Now, is it true that, OVERALL, this won’t be considered wholly original storyline, characters, and content…sure. BUT…WHY should that at all take away from the actual CHARACTER STUDY this film really comes down to? Yes, this IS a darker themed film, and won’t be for everyone, BUT, I never felt compelled ONCE to want to pause, get up and walk away, because I felt engaged the whole time by M and his plight. I desired TO see how someone SO utterly contemptible could POSSIBLY redeem himself, as even his actions while he HAD the child in his possession were borderline immoral at best. But the final revelations in the story, and even a SINGLE moment of true selflessness on M’s part, made the story fine to me. Latvala does a fine job as M, infusing him with everything that’s needed for you to absolutely detest the guy! His lack of moral center, while on display at all times, still ends up being what actually KEEPS you paying attention to the movie, just WAITING for what insanity the guy will pull next, even as the situations around him deteriorate. And I would challenge ANYONE NOT to fall in love with little Alva, played wonderfully by Leia Bergqvist. The rest of the supporting players are solid in their roles, and actually I felt lent that additional humanness to the story. And that is what I want to leave you all with….it’s the IMPERFECTIONS of the film, due to its lack of budget, that actually end up MAKING the film the journey to watch that it is. So again, I give complete credit to those like Bergqvist and his friends, who decided to get together, make their love of film a reality, and put it out there to the world. Guys and gals, KEEP IT UP! MAKE IT! And ALWAYS ENJOY IT for the love of the art. Readers, you can follow the filmmaker HERE and the production company HERE and the film HERE on Twitter. Also, see additional information HERE and HERE.
As always, this is all for YOUR consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
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