Short film, 2013. 21 min 11 sec. DCP. Color. Stereo.
Cast: Man - Ulf Filén, Woman - Jonna Ekdahl, Neighbours - Carl Harlén and Deborah Fronko, Police officers - Helena Jansson and Karl Ekdahl, Ambulance personnel - Gustav Liberg and Christopher Tossavainen
Camera: Ossian Melin
Sound editing and mixing: Erik Ljunggren
Sound technician: Anton Hellström
Production Assistant: Patrik Härenstam
The film is a reconstruction of a series of events concerning a suicide case. The static camera is positioned high above, neutrally recording the events from a distance.
Watch an excerpt from Reconstruction here.
"Reconstruction is a reconstruction of a suicide. Mattias Härenstam have chosen to describe the situation through a fixed camera, that without any movement or change of view, presents us with an image, a part of the story, almost like a surveillance camera that only partially captures the events. We are introduced to an ordinary afternoon in a suburban housing row where people come driving home from work and we soon discover that something terrible is happening right in front of our eyes. We become passive spectators without access to any more information than the image that the camera shows us, and we can only imagine what happens. And exactly this is the geniality of the film. When we are presented with only an external view of the events, we as spectators construct the rest, and it is our own experience and imagination that creates the whole.
For me personally the absence of information created a strong closeness to the situation. The sparse soundtrack made every sound very important and made my position as spectator almost inappropriate. Härenstam presents the clearest sense of shock, despair and emptiness that any movie has given me in a long time."
Review by Marit Soini, published in Norwegian Film magazine Z, no 3, 2013
Reconstruction was first shown in a slightly different version at a solo show at Tromsø Fine Arts Society in November - December 2012 and had its' cinema premiere at Göteborg International Film Festival January - February 2013. It was also selected for Jeonju International Film Festival in South Korea, April 2013, The Spring Exhibition at Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen February - May 2013, as part of solo show at Luleå Konsthall, Sweden March - April 2013; Umeå International Short Film Festival, Sweden May 2013; the Norwegian Short Film Festival in Grimstad, Norway, June 2013 and a special selection from the Short Film Festival was also screened at Bomuldsfabrikken Kunsthall, Arendal, Norway in July 2013. In 2014 it has been shown at solo shows at Art-Claims-Impulse in Berlin Jan - March and Norske Grafikere, Oslo in February - March, at Minimalen Short Film Festival, Trondheim, Norway in March; FEC European Short Film Festival, Reus, Spain also in March; Cinemateket, Oslo as part of Oslo Open in April 2014 and at Moviebox, Hydrogenfabrikken Kunsthall, Fredrikstad in May 2014. From July until October 2014 it was shown as part of Artists' Film International at Whitechapel Gallery, London and in September 2014 it was screened at Theater im Palais as part of the Berlin Art Week. From January until April 2015 it will be shown at the exhibition "Existus" at Galerie im Körnerpark, Berlin and in April - May at a solo show at Oppland Arts Centre, Lillehammer, Norway.
Reconstruction was nominated in 2013 for the most prestigous film award in Norway, The Amanda, in the category for best short film.
Review by Marit Soini, Filmtidskriftet Z, no 3 2013 (in Norwegian)