The Store (Butiken) Review from TriArt Film!
The Store (Butiken) is an independent film made in Sweden with English subtitles. Directed and written by Ami-Ro Sköld, The Store caught my attention when a Facebook friend — the beautiful and mesmerizing Swedish model/actress Eliza Sica — posted about the film on her timeline. I watched and reviewed a short film that she acted in it years ago titled Auopossessed directed by Emil Levin.
The striking poster and stills I saw from the film gripped me immediately. In this age of consumerism and people lacking empathy for each other is very true to life. I developed a new perspective on those dealing with the public with its often thankless and demanding job for little pay in return.
The Store is a bleak, frustrating, sad, and yet somewhat uplifting view into the lives of those who work at a discount grocery store. We experience the different employee’s family life as well as a look into the homeless community which lives across a river from the store. What makes the film even more unique is how parts of it are filmed in stop motion animation. I feel the stop motion adds even more depth and gets the films point across in a stronger definitive fashion.
Store clerk Eleni played by Eliza Sica (Drömmar om Las Vegas, Devini) returns to her position at a supermarket early after having a child. It seems the owner is doing her a favour by putting her in a management role, but it also seems like he didn’t give her much of a choice to begin with. We find out later in the film he would have probably offered the position to someone else. The owner continues to manipulate Eleni into making decisions she regrets deep down.
From the opening scenes which are done in stop motion the viewer gets a glimpse of the public’s ugliness to each other and especially the staff of the store. Chicken is on sale; the demand is high and the customers are relentless and pestering. What captivated me is how the movie focussed on such scenes with the deplorable public. Director/writer Ami-Ro Sköld took her own experiences working in a discount supermarket and applied those experiences to the film.
Things start getting worse as the store owner forces Eleni to fire someone or cut staff hours. The employees begin getting desperate and competitive with each other as the stress mounts and keeps building and building. Eleni’s relationship with co-workers such as the pregnant Jackie played by Daysury Valencia (Polly, Toxic) begins to strain as empty promises are made. Eleni is visibly stressed and deteriorating herself under the pressure becoming someone she doesn’t want to be. Her mother disapproves of her decision to go back to work early and brings forth the notion of Eleni abandoning her child by doing so.
We also get several different characters in the film who live their lives struggling under different circumstances. Supermarket worker and single father Aadin played by Arbi Alviati (Voidcaller, Daniel) tries desperately to care for his two daughters while facing eviction, collection agencies and so forth. He is a good father and loves his two girls deep down, but the financial burdens affect his home life.
We also get to see the homeless community who survive off the discarded food the supermarket dumps daily. Tension rises with them as well as they are eventually locked out of the store’s dumpster. Employees such as Jackie and Aadin attempt to help them. Aadin and his daughters even form a loving relationship with one of the homeless ladies and the community she dwells in. It’s not all bleak, there are some genuinely touching moments in The Store.
Eva is a long-time senior employee and a regular target for harassment from Eleni. Her family life living with her daughter and granddaughter is not ideal as her daughter treats her with disdain and much like a grown disobedient child.
The Store is shot well, it plunges you into the film right there with the characters. The performances are excellent by the cast and come naturally evoking all necessary emotions. I want more films like this, movies that tell a story I care about, the struggles of everyday people not professional athletes, rockstars, or famous Hollywood actors that are put on a pedestal.
The Store has a runtime of over two hours so it’s definitely an investment time wise, but it’s very emotionally charged in its entirety. You get a desperate unfolding of situations crumbling away with the workers, scrounging for meagre hours and their lives reaching a breaking point before coming to terms with their families and themselves. There are no fairy tale happy endings but there is love and forgiveness and understanding which in reality is all one can hope for.
AKA: Butiken
Directed by: Ami-Ro Sköld
Written by: Ami-Ro Sköld
Produced by: Lovisa Charlier
Cinematography by: Hanna Högstedt
Editing by: Patrik Forsell
Music by: Giorgio Giampà
Animated by: Ludovica Di Benedetto, Massimo Ottoni, Berivan Erdogan
Cast: Eliza Sica, Daysury Valencia, Arbi Alviati, Isabelle Grill, Victor Iván, Kristina Brändén Whitaker
Year: 2022
Country: Sweden
Language: Swedish, Russian, Greek (English Subtitles)
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 2h 23min
Studio: Onoma Productions, Indyca, Götafilm
Distributor: TriArt Film
