Rob Munday
Have you ever found yourself at a crossroads in your life, where you know the decision you’re about to make could have a lasting impact on your future? For young actress Ingrid this is exactly the situation she finds herself in Anna Fredrikke Bjerke’s Eksponert (Exposed), when the director, and fellow cast members, of her graduate play suggests she appears naked on stage.
A character-driven piece centred around snappy dialogue, the conflict is introduced to Exposed early on in proceedings when director Magnus suggests that without the nudity Ingrid’s character loses her “turning point”. From this point, the conversation between the performers evolves to include the nature of art, freedom of speech, objectification, female sexuality, power and more. Thematically complex, but narratively simple it’s a hypnotic and enthralling watch, the pacing – driven by the passing of a rubber ball (indicating whose turn it is to speak) and a minimalist score – giving the conversation an authentic back-and-forth feel.
Vilde Moberg as Ingrid, a young student with an important decision to make.
Written by lead performer and Bjerke’s regular collaborator, Vilde Moberg, the director admits she was drawn to the narrative as she’d “always wanted to direct something that explored the artistic struggle of producing theatre, and, in particular, the rehearsal process of a play”. Inspired by real events and written with actors in mind, the filmmaker adds that the duality narrative and how it examined “the frustration that makes us question our artistic integrity”, while also portraying a woman facing a huge personal/professional decision, meant she saw something widely relatable in the script.
“The screenplay instantly read as a comedy”, Bjerke reveals as we discuss her aims for making Exposed, “which I knew would be important when tackling difficult subject matters such as the film does, including the long-overdue #MeToo movement. In telling this story, which I know resonates with a lot of women especially, the tone had to be humorous and avoid any form of lecturing. I think this comes across in how the characters attempt to navigate the difficult discussion”.
“We filmed Exposed during our first pandemic summer, which certainly had its challenges” – Bjerke on the production of her short
Shot over the first summer of the pandemic with limited shooting time and a small budget, Bjerke decided to contrast the more comedic elements of the storyline with a raw, gritty aesthetic, which helps reveal the darker undertones of a narrative where boundaries are crossed and positions of power exploited. Working with DoP Simon Matthew Valentine they studied films that took place in similar confined spaces – Opening Night, Birdman, Black Swan – to explore how best to tell a “visually interesting story through movement, lighting, color, and more”.
Premiering online at Vimeo in late 2021, Exposed lands an impact by feeling both timely and timeless, drawing attention to important issues (which unfortunately don’t feel like they are abating) with a fresh and engaging approach. With a series of music videos and shorts films to her name, next up for Anna Fredrikke Bjerke is her debut feature How We Live Now, which was selected for the 2021 Torino Film Lab.