Call Girl arrives on our shores not only trailing festival success but also a surprising link to our own film industry having received co-funding from our Film Board and visual effects courtesy of Windmill Lane. Visual effects aside, this is a very Swedish film – one that is deeply entwined with a time of political intrigue in that country’s history that is more than likely unfamiliar to anyone outside the country.
Taking place in the run-up to a general election in which women’s rights and equality are the tent-pole issues, we meet two young girls in the care of the state, Iris (Sofia Karemyr) and Sonja (Josefin Asplund). A rebellious pair, they leave their care home nightly to idle around the city. On one such excursion, Iris and Sonja are introduced to Dagmar Glans (Pernilla August), an older woman who plies them with alcohol and praise. Glans runs a prostitution service catering to some of the most influential men in the government and soon Iris and Sonja are groomed into her service. Meanwhile, an investigation into political corruption closes in on Glans and her operation.
The girls side of the story is undoubtedly strong, with fantastic performances from the girls and August but the police procedural/political intrigue aspect of the film never really catches fire – taking place in a succession of blankly formal offices, peopled by blankly formal men in beige suits, it becomes a little repetitive. Simon J. Berger as Sandberg, the head of the investigation, doesn’t get to come into his own until the last section of the film. Thus, for the most part, there is no strong character thrust forward to make the investigation a little more dynamic.
The film is shot by Hoyte Van Hoytema, who received plaudits for his icily austere, tobacco tinted take on Britain in the 1970s for Tomas Alfredson’s adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. For Call Girl, Hoytema is revisiting the same time period but visually, the film could not be more different from Tinker Tailor. From its grainy, film stock look, to the driving synth soundtrack, Call Girl lifts its inspiration straight from the gritty thrillers of the 1970s like Serpico and All the President’s Men. Director Mikael Marciman never turns the film into pastiche though and the ‘70s style compliments the subject matter and ups the tension. The result is a strong, stylish thriller.