Short of the Week

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Dark Comedy Jakob Marky

Make-Up

Director Jakob is in the middle of recording when he becomes obsessed with the authenticity of a cosmetic hickey. Despite repeating his mantra of assuming responsibility, he soon oversteps all boundaries and ends up in a pinch with his own self-image.

Play
Dark Comedy Jakob Marky

Make-Up

Director Jakob is in the middle of recording when he becomes obsessed with the authenticity of a cosmetic hickey. Despite repeating his mantra of assuming responsibility, he soon oversteps all boundaries and ends up in a pinch with his own self-image.
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Make-Up

Dark Comedy about Society in Live-Action
Directed By Jakob Marky
Produced By Magnus Nygaard Albertsen & Axel Herrlin & Mette Jermiin
Made In Sweden

Everything appears to be running smoothly on director Jakob’s set, where he prioritizes a safe and respectful workplace. However, when he isn’t really satisfied with make-up artist Madde’s work on seventeen-year-old actor Alfons, his quest for on-screen authenticity leads him a little too far. In Make-Up, writer/director Jakob Márky deftly uses a sharp, darkly humorous tone to craft a situation where the power dynamics and issues of consent between the characters gives the film a surprising turn. 

Made in record time, Make-Up was written as Márky was working on another short, with a preproduction process that was taking longer than expected. Angsty to shoot a film – a feeling many filmmakers can relate to – he wrote the screenplay while in transit from Norway to Sweden (a very short trip!). As luck would have it, he “coincidentally ran into [his] producer at the airport” and just “two weeks later, [they] had wrapped a one-day shoot and had the film”. It was only another 10 days later that Márky says “everything was (almost) done”. 

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Joel Spira stars as director Jakob in Make-Up

With the filmmaker revealing that the majority of his work “centres very heavily around characters, predominantly men, who take themselves very seriously and think of themselves as very intelligent”. He admits that “the fact that they are neither is something [he] can relate to very much” – it is also arguably what makes those characters nuanced and compelling. While this personality trait can create complex and interesting characters, it’s also, what the director describes as, “a great breeding ground for comedy”. Márky recognizes this paradox in his role as director as well, qualifying the job as a “very strange mix of utter serosity and complete silliness”. A theme that is explored against the backdrop of the power dynamics on a film set in Sweden, a country where the #MeToo movement was heavily supported.

Where the film sets itself apart from others that deal with this topic, is in its tone and nuance. The dark comedy quickly gives way to an awkwardness and discomfort, before developing into an unsettling anger for the viewer. Yet, just as the mood seems set, Márky turns the table, surprising us and changing the tone again. Make-Up is a film that is certain to provoke different reactions from its audience, especially where it leads in the end. However, the edit keeps the film moving at a pace where it is unafraid to slow down, allowing us time to simmer in the complexity of the situation and grasp the severity of the matter from their two different perspectives. 

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Moa Silén as make-up artist Madde in Jakob Márky’s short

Starring Joel Spira, as Jakob the director, and Moa Silén, as Madde the make-up artist, both deliver incredible performances, carrying the weight of their relationship while also exposing the power dynamics and distinct personalities at play. Their face-offs are all the more captivating, and unpredictable, because of this and they portray their characters so well, that even their conversation over text message carries a significant weight. As Spira and Silén masterfully play with the film’s shifting tone, their on-screen presence and chemistry works to enhance the depth of the screenplay and make every interaction resonate. 

After hitting the festival circuit in 2022 with a national premiere at Gothenburg and an international premiere at the Palm Springs ShortFest, Make-Up recently made its online debut on YouTube. Márky is now working on a couple of new short films, while also developing his feature debut, which will be tonally and stylistically similar to his shorts.