Comedy Queen
Ajyal Competition - Ajyal Film Festival 2022
Sanna Lenken / Feature Narrative / Sweden / 2021 / 94 min / Colour / In Swedish / Arabic, English subtitles
Rated: Parental guidance is advised for viewers under the age of 13. Individuals under the age of 13 are not admitted into cinemas unless accompanied by an individual aged 18 or older.
Synopsis
Sasha is 13 years old and wants nothing more than to become a stand-up comedian. She wants to make everyone laugh, especially her father, who cries in the shower when he thinks no one is listening. Behind her eyes, the unhealed tears also burn on Sasha, but she refuses to mourn her mother, who has passed away in tragic circumstances. Instead, she secretly writes a list of everything she must do to survive—shave her hair, stop reading books, say no to the world’s cutest puppy and above all—become a Comedy Queen.
Balancing humour with heartbreaking loss, ‘Comedy Queen’ delicately deals with grief, denial and ultimately acceptance of a tragic death in a family. Too young to fully understand her feelings and unable to open up to her father or therapist, Sasha rebels against everything and everyone around her. Suffering from immeasurable sorrow, she finds a creative outlet for her grief and anger in the form of comedy. An outlet that allows her to finally come to terms with her loss and re-establish a relationship with her father in this touching coming-of-age drama.
About the Director
Born in Gothenburg, Sweden 1978, Sanna Lenken studied at Dramatiska Institutet in Stockholm and the European Film College in Denmark. After several successful short films such as ‘Eating Lunch’ and the series ‘Double Life’, she made her feature film debut in 2015 with ‘My Skinny Sister’ for which she was awarded the Crystal Bear at the Berlin Film Festival as well as the Audience Award at the Göteborg Film Festival. Her most recent work is the popular series ‘Thin Blue Line’ for SVT and the Viaplay series ‘Thunder in My Heart’.
Credits
- Director
- Sanna Lenken
- Screenwriter
- Linn Gottfridsson
- Producer
- Rebecka Lafrenz, Anna Anthony
- Cinematographer
- Simon Pramsten
- Editor
- Andreas Nilsson SFK
- Production Company
- FLX Feature AB
- Sales Company
- REinvent International Sales
- Sound
- Andreas Franck
- Composer
- Irya Gmeyner
- Cast
- Sigrid Johnson, Oscar Töringe, Ellen Taure, Iggy Malmborg, Adam Daho, Anna Bjelkerud, Frida Beckman