G – 21 Scenes from Gottsunda

Gottsunda is a notorious neighbourhood in Sweden’s Uppsala, characterised by social housing and violence. Loran Batti, who left years ago, returns to the infamous hood to make a film about life there. His first stop is the prison, where Loran picks up a friend who is being released. To celebrate, they set off some fireworks amid the grey, snowy landscape in front of the prison. When the police show up, the two take off. Fleeing from the police is a repeat occurrence in the months that follow, as the filmmaker attempts to capture a place that holds a special and formative place in his memories, despite the brutality and privation. But his old friends are all enmeshed in drug and weapons trafficking, and dangerous gang wars. Loran can’t follow them everywhere with his camera. The bigger question is what tale he is actually trying to tell. The film that Loran has been working on for years is in danger of collapsing and his girlfriend, waiting back home in Gothenburg, is slowly losing patience.