Movie

She Male Snails
2012 · 75 min
A poetic, sensory immersion into gender and selfhood, blending painful memories with vivid, dreamlike imagery that lingers.
- Directed by
- Ester Martin Bergsmark
- Genres
- Documentary
- Starring
- Ester Martin Bergsmark, Varg Holmdahl, Eli Levén
- Overview
- Caught between two genders, the artist Eli Leven and Ester Martin Bergsmark touch and caress each other, while they bath together in clouds of steam. A persuasive voice-off describes the often hard and painful growing process, which led them to choose to be neither males nor females. But something else entirely. While memories of adolescences scarred by homophobia and discrimination are presented, the audience is also captivated by poetic evocations of bodies, of snowy woods, water, nature, and snails: the symbol of androgyny. This movie moves the audience profoundly. It is a hymn to sexual fluidity, which reveals the search for the true self, rendered through the use of contrasting, vivid, and often acid bright photography. Intended as a television portrait of the transgender artist Eli Leven, it is a psychedelic docu-fiction, a hybrid movie inspired by Derek Jarman's Sebastian.
- How it feels
- Earnest, melancholic, eerie and warm. Slow-burning and demanding.
- About
- Identity, gender, sexuality, trauma
- Content
- Strong sexual content. Mild violence and language. No gore.
- Note
- Written by AI, so it can be wrong. Full breakdown
Your rating is saved. See your suggestions, or find titles like this one below.
Rate it, and Mesmero finds titles that feel like it. You do not need an account.
Watch the trailer on YouTube (opens in a new tab)
Add to a list: She Male Snails
In the USNo streaming, rental or purchase options known.
- Directed by
- Ester Martin Bergsmark
- Genres
- Documentary
- Starring
- Ester Martin Bergsmark, Varg Holmdahl, Eli Levén

