A new trailer has been shared ahead of the upcoming 3 March UK release of Marie Lidén’s acclaimed, BAFTA-nominated documentary Electric Malady and ahead of this Sunday’s BAFTA Awards where it is nominated for Outstanding British Debut. After receiving its World Premiere at CPH:DOX this year and UK premiere at Sheffield DocFest 2022, the film was also nominated for the BIFA Raindance Discovery Award. Watch it exclusively on CineVue below.
Produced by Aimara Reques and Aconite Productions, artist and filmmaker Marie Lidén invites audiences into the isolated world of William, a young man who’s spent a decade reluctantly retreating from modern life. A one-time master’s student and aspiring musician, his adverse reaction to the electrical radiation from our interconnected digital age has led him to a remote cabin in the Swedish wilderness where he’s cut himself off from most forms of technology. But how do you get off the grid when the grid is now everywhere?
Hidden in a foil-encased bedroom, beneath layers of copper-lined fabric, William speaks openly to Lidén about suffering from the condition known as electrosensitivity. Shot partly with a hand-cranked Bolex camera, what emerges is a lyrical and empathetic portrait of loneliness and isolation — and a loving family’s efforts to save their son’s life.
Here’s Lidén on her new film: ”Electric Malady is so important to me because of the voice I hope it will give to those suffering with electrosensitivity. In many cases these people’s stories are marginalised, because they cannot communicate the way we do through Internet or even using phones. I’m also very aware of the boundaries exposed within the film, the questions raised about the differences between mental and physical symptoms, how we apply rules of diagnosis. I am excited by issues that straddle definition, where mainstream society wants to draw neat lines between the conscious and un-conscious, the psychological and the physiological, the real experience of people can be much more complex. I believe we have to explore these boundaries and continually challenge them, to ensure we do give a voice to the marginalised.”
Electric Malady is released by Conic in UK/Irish cinemas on 3 March 2023. A Q&A tour with the director will visit selected cinemas nationwide.
