Pink is the new green

There is sweat, there is blood and there are tears. The latest movie of Magnus von Horn is more organic than it seems and behind the pink aesthetic there is emotional and physical violence which is always barely visible. These phenomena of invisibilisation are just markers of our time.

Sweat captures, in a very clever way, how social media exacerbates the failings of our capitalist and sexist society. Fitness influencer Sylwia seems to have the dream life - but the reality is somewhat different. And even if the deception of Instagram has been known for a while now, the dive into a day of this public figure, born on the Internet, is terrifying and exhausting. This feeling is accentuated by the way the director films the character of Magdalena Kolesnik. While the glare of the phone screen is obviously present, the snare of online presence is actually experienced through close-up framing of the actress whenever she is scared, tired, sad… creating an anxious atmosphere where the character can’t have any of her own perspectives on her environment or life. She is trapped in the image, physically and metaphorically.

Wide shots are effectively used to put the spectator in the position of the stalker. We peep at her - the symbolism of the occidental obsession of the ‘perfect body’: Sylvwia is white, blonde with blue eyes, she is thin and muscular. If Magdalena Kolesnik represents the very standards of the superficial expectations, she also embraces the character of Sylwia with authenticity and fragility. A fragility that is starting to crack due to violence from the media; a misogynistic brutality which extends within the family’s sphere. Our society still thinks that bodies identified as women are at the disposition of brands, men, audiences; existing to satisfy the needs and ambitions of others.

Being an influencer is not a corny dream, it’s a symptom of our mercantile society. Pink is not cliché, it’s a disguise of the green capitalism which always benefits the same people on the back of the same minorities. Pink is green and green is actually white. And minorities don’t share the sweat, the blood and the tears with the white people dressed in green.

Sweat by Magnus von Horn, starring with Magdalena Kolesnik, Julian Swiezewski, Aleksandra Konieczna