The Store

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The Store (Butiken)

The Store (Butiken)

original title:

Butiken

directed by:

cast:

Eliza Sica, Daysury Valencia, Arbi Alviati, Isabelle Grill, Victor Iván, Kristina Brändén Whitaker, Fredrik Evers, Linda Hellström, Eleftheria Gerofoka, Lana Chahto, Sarah Viktoria Engman, Linda Faith, Alisa Sofia Paulsen, Marcus Standoft, Sabrin Jaja, Joshua Nicolas Sjöö

screenplay:

cinematography:

Hanna Högstedt

editing:

Patrik Forsell

set design:

Erika von Weissenber

costume design:

Berivan Erdogan

production:

Tangram Film, Gota Film, Indyca, with the support of Swedish Film Institute, Film i Vast, Piemonte Film Tv Fund, Eurimages

world sales:

country:

Sweden/Italy

year:

2022

film run:

143'

format:

colour

release date:

31/08/2023

festivals & awards:

It’s year 2025.
In a discount store somewhere in Sweden, the working conditions bring the staff close to exhaustion due to management and customers. The margins are so tight it’s almost impossible to ever reach the set goal, but for the right person there’s huge possibilities to make a carrier since this store is one of Sweden’s most successful business.
In the store we get to follow some of the employees, AADIN who sits in the staff room all day waiting to receive a text message informing him about the needed work hours. JACKIE who is pregnant, but has to hide her growing belly in fear of being fired. And ELLA - the manager - who is pumping breast milk for her 4 months old baby at the Staffs toilet.
At the same time a tent-camp is being put up near the store where unemployed, homeless and sick people try to manage a life.
The skip at the loading bridge where waste are thrown away becomes the place for encounters among the people in the camp and the employees. At the camp questions are being about what is waste and what is not, and how to use the methods of fermentation and composting to preserve and recycle food in a sustainable way. The lines between the store and the camp are slowly blurred, and in the end it becomes unclear who is part of the camp, who is still an employee in The Store, who is included in the society and who is not, and what that really mean.