Swallow: intimate portrait of a disorder

Cinema, on countless occasions, has echoed various disorders and diseases. Whether with the intention of causing terror or raising awareness in the viewer, we have an infinite list of titles that talk about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, anorexia and a long etcetera. However, there are disorders that have barely had an impact and are equally interesting; Swallow It is a film that openly, but elegantly, addresses one of these forgotten evils.

Directed by Carlo Mirabella-Davis and starring an exceptional Haley Bennett, Swallow constructs an intimate and dramatic portrait of a woman who ends developing a rather peculiar obsession, that of ingesting inedible objects.

This disease, also known as pica, It is grouped within eating disorders and consists of desire to eat objects or elements that are not food. Whether it is dirt, sharp objects or any element that does not correspond to food.

Swallowbeyond talking about a greatly silenced disorder, immerses us in a devastating story and invites us to delve into the reasons that lead its protagonist to develop such an obsession. Far from showing us uncomfortable images or terrifying us, the film delicately deals with the issue, investigating the origin of the protagonist’s problem.

The film, released this year, was part of the Sitges Festival, in which its creator emphasized the emotional and endearing nature of the story, as it was inspired by his own grandmother.

Empathizing with obsession

If we think of a person ingesting sharp objects, an endless number of unpleasant images that border on the eschatological will surely come to mind. Therefore, after reading the synopsis of Swallowmany of us did not know very well what we were going to find, but the result was a film full of beauty, moving and absolutely respectful.

It is not easy to address such a complex and forgotten disorder, nor is it easy to make the audience fully empathize with a character. The complexity of our mind and the taboo surrounding certain diseases (still today) do not make things much easier either. But Mirabella-Davis manages to hit the nail on the head, makes the viewer put themselves in the shoes of its protagonist and understand the reasons that lead her to develop such an obsession.

Swallow follow the story of Hunterplayed by a magnificent Haley Bennett, a young woman who She has just married what seems to be the perfect man. A wealthy man of good social standing with whom she is about to have a child.

Despite this, from the first minutes of footage, we notice a total absence of Hunter’s friends and family, while her husband’s family and friends seem to have a relevant role in their lives.

Very little by little, we are discovering a little more about Hunter. We see in her a housewife who, although in a contemporary age, seems to adapt perfectly to the gender roles that prevailed in the 50s. A woman who has left her job, her independence and dedicates herself to domestic tasks.

She also does not seem to have a strong character or a determining opinion, but rather always remains in her husband’s shadow. In short, a woman who seems to have been annulled and who lacks any motivation. Furthermore, her abuse is not always accompanied by physical violence.

On the other hand, the image of the charming husband falls apart every time they share a scene; Behind the image of an attractive and successful man hides someone who is absolutely controlling.

At first, Hunter will seem strange to us, we feel the need to tell her to open her eyes, get away from that environment and take control of her life.. We see how the pregnancy begins to affect him and, after receiving a self-help book as a gift, he decides to do something unexpected: eat a marble.

Is Hunter going crazy? Is it boredom at home that leads you to make those types of decisions? Countless questions will burst into our minds trying to understand why Hunter acts that way. But The filmmaker is determined to involve us in her story, to show us what reasons lead her to adopt this behavior.

Swallow: elegant and beautiful

The use of color, the staging and the brilliant interpretation of its protagonist invite us to stay, to fully immerse ourselves in Hunter’s story. We will soon discover, thanks to the help of his psychologist, that much more is hidden behind his illness. A dark past, plagued by emotional deficiencies and instability that leads the protagonist to become a victim of it.

We never know to what extent a trauma can hurt or appear at the most unexpected moment. The interesting thing is that, despite the complexity of his illness, we can identify with Hunter at times. And it is that Swallow It is characterized by naturalness, by a great success in showing how we really are when we are alone, when we believe that no one sees us.

Hunter plunges into an endless spiral, the pike takes over her, but we, as viewers, do not see her as a stranger, but rather we end up understanding her attitude.

Intimacy is something completely difficult to portray, totally complex; It is almost impossible to verbalize it and, surely, many of us would never tell what we do when we are alone. Swallow It perfectly portrays that intimacy, those moments in which we are ourselves, in which there is no other person’s gaze to judge and in which Hunter lets himself be carried away by his obsession..

Hunter is a fragile and insecure woman who harbors a traumatic past that ends up leading to a problem for your own health. We almost perceive the emptiness she feels, his shortcomings, and we manage to understand the reason for his obsession.

We even attended a most realistic anxiety attackin which more than one will be able to see their reflection… All of this to lead to an ending that relieves us and ends up making us participate in that intimacy that has been so present and that all of us live day by day.

The power of its images and the interpretation of the protagonist They are key in a film that exudes elegance and dignifies all those people who, for one reason or another, can succumb to an illness, disorder or insecurity.

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