A Sweetness from Nowhere

Ester Bergsmark / Sweden & Norway / 2026 / World Premiere / 86 min

Swedish artist Ester M. Bergsmark makes films where all art forms merge in a contemporary hybrid of forms and strategies – and when you watch ‘A Sweetness from Nowhere’, you don’t just get an experience unlike any other. You also understand why it can only be that way. The material is existential, lived experience rests in the body, and the political struggles are personal.

With a worn-out apartment as its dramatic setting, an enigmatic chamber play unfolds, set in motion by a personal crisis which the film transforms into words and images in a process of becoming where change is the only constant. Animals such as jellyfish and possums play dead to survive in their harsh natural environment. The same strategy is a step towards healing in Bergsmark’s performative film work. Visually explosive imagery allows thoughts, feelings and actions to meet in a transformative narrative about finding one’s way back to life, desire and oneself.