When the forceful young Muslim Swedish/Balkan "take-no-shit" factory worker Raša loses her job, she faces the system of unemployment. With no high school diploma, no job – but her boots deeply stained with the mud of the small town she grew up in, Raša finds herself on a collision course with society and its contradictory values and expectations.
Jury motivation: In her feature film début Eat Sleep Die Gabriela Pichler speaks directly from a market economy backyard. With the help of the acclaimed leading actress Nermina Lukac and the absolute pitch of all the other amateur actors, she has drawn a subtle but tough picture of everyday racism, exclusion and class differences. It sounds heavy and it is really heavy at times but in a rather unusual way, the director and scriptwriter Pichler has managed to inject a solid dose of warmth and humour giving this harsh story some tangible charisma. She tells the story with great self-assurance, adds no great external conflict or stimulating side story to hold our interest on top - everyday life is confrontational enough. Eat Sleep Die is a piece of unsophisticated life.
National jury: Fredrik Sahlin, Pia Lundberg, Bertil Sandgren