InstituteFestivalProfessionals
EN/NL
Donate
Login
As We're Told
Archive
As We're Told
IDFA 2017

As We're Told

Vi bara lyder
Erik Holmström, Fredrik Wenzel
Sweden
2017
28 min
World Premiere
Festival history
IDFA Special Jury Award for Short Documentary

"It's simple! We do as we're told." This disconcerting reply comes from a Swedish employment office employee when asked how the country’s most unpopular government agency works. And that’s not all: in this creative documentary, case workers, receptionists and psychologists reveal how the Swedish employment system is failing. They complain about inadequate software and mystifying error messages, excessive caseloads and demoralizing results—on average, each case worker helps just 10 people find work each year, and only one in 10 clients will find a new job. To assure the anonymity of the interviewees, they're all represented by cardboard puppets. Thanks to visible puppeteers, expressive eyes and recognizable gestures, these puppets quickly take on the appearance of real people. The result is a fascinating, comical and artistic study of human strategies to get along in an irrational bureaucracy.

Credits
Director
Production
Cinematography
Editing
Sound
Sound Design
Music
Screening copy
Co-production
Involved TV Channel