Interview: Isabella Eklöf – Kalak

In her stunning feature debut (that premiered at Sundance), Swedish filmmaker Isabella Eklöf offered an unflinching and pitiless examination of a drug dealer’s inner circle, presenting a world of psychological and sexual violence with chilling, dispassionate precision. Moving from the commodification ecosystem in 2018’s Holiday to an equally unsettling terrain in a sophomore feature where shame and freedom are common bedfellows, Kalak (adapted from Kim Leine’s novel) is about moral paralysis, violence, colonial and sexual domination with Greenland as the backdrop. With an ear and eye for provocation, dug deep into the psychology of victimhood and dismantles easy stereotypes. I had the chance to speak to the filmmaker (currently residing in Denmark) on her projects, adapting the project, the choice in title and the casting process.