Interview With SICK OF MYSELF Director Kristoffer Borgli

Sick of Myself (Syk Pike in its original title) tells the story of Signe (Kristine Kujath Thorp), a young woman living with her boyfriend Thomas (Eirik Sæther). Thomas has just made it in Oslo’s cultural elite as a contemporary artist who creates sculptures from stolen furniture. Signe is afraid of not being in the limelight, so she makes several unsuccessful attempts to become the center of attention – until she reads about a new Russian drug called Lidexol, which is linked to a mysterious skin disease. What does she decide? To order a lot of boxes of this drug. The result is a bold and risky film, full of dark humor and uncomfortable situations. If you want to read more about the film, here’s our review.

Kristoffer Borgli, the film’s director and screenwriter, a prominent Norwegian filmmaker and a short film director (you can see some of his shorts on his website), uses narcissism as the basis for a brutal satire. I watched his film at the 2022 edition of the Seminci International Film Festival (where he won the “Punto de encuentro” award for best feature film). I was amazed, shocked and very impressed by his film. I had the opportunity to talk to him about the whole experience of filming this project, the title and its meaning, the beauty behind Signe’s skin disease, future projects and much more.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Hi! This is Silvia Mariscal with Film Inquiry: Thank you so much for speaking with me! I’m a big fan of your film. I watched it at the Seminci International Film festival – everyone loved it over there. Your movie was selected by many festivals last year: Seminci, Cannes (under the section Un Certain Regard), Nashville. How was this festival experience?

Kristoffer Borgli: Thanks! I’m glad viewers liked the film at the festival. Unfortunately, I was only able to attend Cannes. I really wanted to travel way more with the movie but the timeline didn’t work out since I was also working on other projects. Cannes was great, such a good place to premiere the film – it felt like a really proper start for the life of the film. When we were editing the movie, we didn’t even have the opportunity to show it in the theater because of COVID restrictions. So Cannes was actually the first time I saw the film with more people. There were like a thousand viewers in the theater so it was kind of a wild experience.

That’s amazing! It happened the same in the Seminci Film Festival – the screening of your film was crowded and the whole experience was fantastic.

Kristoffer Borgli: That’s really great!

The Sick Girl

I was wondering about the film’s title Sick of Myself. Because in Norwegian Syk Pyke means “sick girl”.

Kristoffer Borgli: Yes and it’s actually the title of an old painting. There’s a lot of confusion about who painted it. Because from the 1800s to 1900s, there were so many diseases and a lot of painters who expressed this theme in their paintings: Edvard Munch, Christian Krohg… Munch had a painting called “The Sick Child” and Krohg painted “Sick Girl” (which is “Syk Pyke” in Norwegian). Many people think that Munch’s painting was called “Syk Pyke”, but this is a mistake. The whole idea of the Norwegian title and what it means to Norwegians alludes to art history and the subject of a sick girl in paintings. Signe wants to be seen by her boyfriend, who is an artist. She wants to be that artistic subject, she wants to be the sick girl.

And what about Sick of Myself?

Kristoffer Borgli: In fact, that was the first title I came up with for this project, even before I knew whether the film would be shot in Norwegian or English. When we decided to shoot in Norwegian, the English title stuck and I wanted to keep it and come up with a new one for the Norwegian audience. It’s a play on words. Like “I’m so sick of being me”, which is what happens to Signe, who thinks she is not interesting. And then she also becomes sick of herself since her disease is self-inflicted. That’s the duality of the title. That title came before anything else and was perfect for the story of the film.

The Therapeutic Use of Art

Your film takes so many risks. It’s very bold in that sense. I’m curious: How did you come up with the idea?

Kristoffer Borgli: I’ve had an image of affluent and privileged young Norwegians with skin diseases. It has been an image in my head for over a decade. In different ways, I’ve tried to express or get rid of this desire to make this image. Sick of Myself became the definitive artwork that emerged from this image in my head. I think the main reason why it became a film was the cultural changes and inclusivity in the fashion industry. It was 2017 when I started writing about this, as it became a new fashion to show very different body types. Sometimes it just felt very sanctimonious, like a game of who can have the most inclusive fashion campaign. That, combined with my image of this young, privileged girl with a skin disease, suddenly made sense in a wider context.

There are parts of the film where the tone is very uncomfortable. Some of your shorts like Former Cult Member Hears Music For The First Time are also a bit like that. Do you feel comfortable filming uncomfortable situations?

Kristoffer Borgli: I think it’s a natural interest I have in discomfort, or looking at the intersection between humor and discomfort. Where they collide is where I end up. I can’t explain why exactly I have this interest, but it’s something I’m drawn to over and over again. I can’t seem to get enough of it. Perhaps it has some therapeutic use. There’s something about finding humor in the darkest aspects of our psyche. Even things I recognize in myself like competitiveness, and narcissism. I get to work all these negative aspects therapeutically in fiction. It’s not the only reason why I make art, but it gives me the opportunity to explore darker and complex sides of myself, people around me or of culture.

Narcissism is the core theme of the film and the brutality was almost frighteningly bizarre. In fact, I find it very scary. Why this interest in narcissistic characters?

Kristoffer Borgli: Narcissism was definitely of interest. I’m intrigued by ambitions and recognition. They seem to drive artists, authors or filmmakers. I’m not trying to pathologize ambitions or narcissism. I think there’s something in this whole Buddhist idea of getting rid of the ego that I don’t totally agree with. I think we need an ego, I think it’s interesting to have hyper-personalized ideas and art that come from a strong ego. So this story is just looking at all the wrong sides of something that could potentially be good.

The Beauty Behind Signe’s Skin Disease

The make-up artist is amazing!

Kristoffer Borgli: Yeah. I want to give all the credit to Izzi Galindo, our make-up designer who was working with me in the development phase, a year before we started shooting the movie. He helped bring this idea of a new skin disease to life. He came to Norway and not only designed everything conceptually but also physically did Kristine’s face every day. Of course, he worked with an amazing team but he was really the author, creator and curator of this skin disease from conception to end. And I couldn’t have done it without him.

How long did it take to make Kristine look like Signe? The evolution of her disease is very well taken care of.

Kristoffer Borgli: Actually, we had different names for the stages of the disease: the “swollen stage” when she takes that huge bottle of pills and has an immediate severe emergency reaction. The “beautiful stage”: when the poison has exited her body and she is left with these beautiful scars. At this stage, we thought the skin disease was more beautiful and interesting. We wanted to create a skin disease that was severe enough for it to be really shocking, but mild and pretty enough to keep watching that face for another hour on screen. We took inspiration from nature, from leaf patterns and exotic plants. We used those beautiful patterns on her face. The “beautiful stage” took like three hours to implement. Then came the “post-beautiful stage” [laughs] – when at the end of the film the disease gets worse, and it took Izzi and his team almost seven hours to apply.

Future Projects: Dream Scenario

You are working on the film Dream Scenario now. It’s in post-production, can you tell us a bit more about it? For example, you worked with a lot of amazing actors, how was the experience?

Kristoffer Borgli: Yes there’s a lot of great actors in the movie: Nicolas Cage, Michael Cera, Dylan Baker, Kate Berlant, Tim Meadows, Julianne Nicholson… It’s been a fantastic experience to shoot with these legends and, you know, heroes of mine! I’m very excited about the project and how it’s turned out. I’m still in the editing process, so it’s not finished, but it feels great.

There is not much info on IMDb about Dream Scenario, can you tell us a bit about it?

Kristoffer Borgli: It’s about a family man who is a professor, a normal person who suddenly finds himself at the center of this new dream epidemic that occurs and becomes famous for appearing in people’s dreams.

Sounds great! I’ll definitely watch it. Thank you very much for taking the time and I hope we can see your new film soon!

Kristoffer Borgli: Thank you so much!

Film Inquiry would like to thank Kristoffer Borgli for taking the time to speak with us!

Sick of Myself opens on April 12th at the IFC Center in New York and April 14th at Landmark NuArt Theater in Los Angeles.