Jenifer Malmqvist | Födelsedag (Birthday) / 2009

justifiable hurts

by Douglas Messerli

 

Jenifer Malmqvist (screenwriter and director) Födelsedag (Birthday) / 2009 [18 minutes]

 

It is Katarina’s (Lotten Roos) birthday, and her lesbian lover, Sara (Åsa Karlin) encourages her to sleep in, while she runs off to make sure of the birthday cake, carry the new canoe she crafted just for her birthday to their house, and make sure the company who she has have invited, particularly Fredrik (August Lindmark), arrive on time. And there’s her own daughter Johanna (Liva Leijnse Elkjær) to look after.

     Fredrik is particularly important since he to be the surrogate father of the new child Katarina is attempting to conceive, and Sara also arrives with a large package of new syringes for the transfer of sperm.

    Everything appears to be perfect. But by the time she arrives back at the house with Johanna and Fredrik in tow, she is in for a few surprises herself.

    First of all, Katarina reveals that on one of their evenings of attempting to inseminate her, after Fredrik being unable to successfully masturbate, she and he had old-fashioned sex on the couch, and now she is pregnant, having just had it confirmed by the doctor the other day.

     Sara is astounded, stunned.

     Several responders to this film, surely younger viewers, couldn’t believe how petty Sara is about the situation, how unfounded her anger seems to be (she tosses the birthday cake, face up into their bed). But I can fully empathize with her. Not only has Katarina not told her the news, has kept secret important information that involves both of them, but has gone outside of their own lesbian relationship to have carnal sex with a male. Moreover, when Sara asks what they should tell Johanna—who as a young intelligent girl, has invested a great deal of energy in the possibility of her new sibling—Katarina argues that they shouldn’t tell her.

     Perhaps if they had discussed the matter ahead of time, or Katarina had explained immediately afterwords, but now, so long after the fact, having even kept her pregnancy a secret, Sara feels betrayed, and even worse, as the festivities begin and a local band comes to serenade her lover, she spots Katarina in the window kissing Fredrik.

     Is it any wonder that Sara pulls out a bottle of wine, drives down to the seashore with the boat on top and begins to heavily imbibe. When her daughter arrives to check up on her, Sara tells her the truth about the situation, this time without consulting with her companion. Johanna simply seems please that her other mother is now pregnant.

      When the party group trails down to the sea for the special unveiling of the boat, Sara, somewhat drunkenly, pours out a glass to toast the new vessel. But Katarina mocks the fact that her lover has built her a canoe. Canoes are for rivers and lakes. You need a kayak in the ocean she insists. And instead of throwing a bit of wine or breaking the bottle of champagne against its hull, she enters the canoe, pulls down her pants, and pisses into it.

     Everyone is a bit shocked at this point, and the two lovers seem destined for some difficult times ahead. Sara’s answer is to crawl into the canoe and set herself afloat. Johanna calls after her mother that she has forgotten to wear her life vest, and soon after Sara discovers the girl attempting to swim out with the vest to great her, while having a great difficulty in keeping herself from drowning. Sara pulls out the paddle and rushes to her rescue, dragging her into the canoe.

     Together the two return home wet, Sara perhaps finally ready to confront Katharina for her behavior. But Katharina seems oblivious, hanging sheets out on the clothes line and wondering why they both are so disheveled.

     Sara is nearly speechless, and as she looks over to see the windchime her daughter has created

of empty inseminating tubes, she can only laugh and cry as the two hug and make up. After all, Katharina is now pregnant and they shall soon have another baby to care for together, Fredrik or no Fredrik. Theirs is clearly a permanent relationship of love despite their petty—and sometimes not so petty—hurts.

      As I mentioned in the earlier discussion in this volume of Jenifer Malmqvist’s At the End of the Street (2007), the director studied film in Lodz. While the former film was in Polish, however, this one is in Swedish and is co-sponsored by organizations both in Poland and the Netherlands. It was filmed in England.

 

Los Angeles, January 15, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (January 2025).