Filmmaker Statement

A couple of years ago, I learnt that thousands of Thai berry pickers were stranded in Swedish forests because of unexpected weather conditions. The summer of 2018 was a historically hot summer, and while Swedes celebrated the extreme temperatures, Thai berry pickers were left in a desperate situation.  The berry picking industry has represented a platform for modern slavery for a long time, where language barriers, lack of transparency and desperate agendas have made it difficult for governments to intervene. Behind all of these stories, there are people with real life stakes, and as I’ve interviewed some of them, I’ve grown obsessed about telling their story. Given the realist nature of the story, I wanted the film to feel like a hybrid between documentary and fiction, with a minimalist visual style. Shots are characterized by long takes (“unbroken gaze”) in order to emphasize real time. A lot of the story is about characters waiting, hoping, not knowing, and I want the audience to feel the weight of time. To highlight nature’s power on humanity, the framing is at times high, with horizontal center lines above the eyes of the characters. The visual grammar changes whenever we’re connecting with the younger brother, Nat, and we’re invited into his subjective experience of the world around him; through his eyes and ears. I’ve casted non-actors who’ve grown up in Isan, and many of the characters in the film are played by actual berry pickers. I’ve dedicated years interviewing former pickers, berry picking firms, Thai human rights activists, journalists and researchers. Thai berry pickers are merely visitors in Swedish forests, and the carbon footprint of privileged nations’ consumption patterns isn’t theirs to clean up. Yet, they’re currently paying a big price in the name of climate change. The more I’ve learned, the more urgently I feel that this story needs to be told, to start a serious conversation about the labor exploitation of migrant workers, and the question of liability in the global economy.