An artists' film by Cecilia Stenbom.

The film takes its starting point from popular crime fiction by structuring the story around a set of extracted scenarios out of a fictitious crime investigation: the crime scene, the police squad room and the aftermath of the capture. The dialogue and voice over segments in the film are reenactments from a series of transcribed recordings with the general public about perception of crime, potential for violence and popular crime drama. Creating a deliberate gap in the expectations of the scene by the widespread familiarity of the crime fiction genre.

The film plays with the fictional and documentary origins of the story further by including voice over segments, interspersed in between the constructed drama accompanied by cut away landscape shots. The cut aways are a mix between breathtaking views of the sea, surrounding landscape and picturesque town. The location builds on a tradition of setting crime drama in small respectable towns, that are generally safe and where few actual acts of random crime takes place.

In order to anchor the story in its original setting an open invitation went out to people living or working in or near the setting of the film, to take part in discussion events about crime. These events where recorded, transcribed and became the base for the script that was later developed. 

The look and feel of the film was inspired by contemporary crime drama, specifically looking at Scandinavian Noir, exploring Stenbom’s own Swedish connection to the British isles and how notions of identity are connected over the north sea through popular fiction. 

The film was shot in and around Berwick Upon Tweed, Northumberland, North East England.

Commissioned by Berwick Visual Arts and Berwick Film & Media Festival

Crew

Director Cecilia Stenbom

Producer Mat Fleming

Cinematographer Minttumaari Mäntynen

Editor Edwin Mingard

Production Manager Stephanie Oswald

Post production Satellite Films