Sundance Welcomes Swedish Pleasure

Pleasure, the debut feature by Ninja Thyberg, has been selected to compete in the World Dramatic section of the Sundance Film Festival (28 January – 3rd February) which will take place both digitally and on satellite screens across the USA.

The Sundance Film Festival aims to connect audiences to artists by discovering original voices and building a community dedicated to independent storytelling. To this end, the World Dramatic Competition consists of ten films from emerging talents who offer fresh perspectives and innovative styles.

The nominees this year are: The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet (Argentina), El Planeta (USA), Fire in the Mountains (India), Hive (Kosovo), Human Factors (Germany), Luzzu (Malta), One for the Road (China), The Pink Cloud (Brazil), Pleasure (Sweden), and Prime Time (Poland).

Set in the American porn industry, Pleasure follows Bella (Sofia Kappel), a young and ambitious 20-year-old who travels from Sweden to Los Angeles to become the next big porn star. Her journey is a story of ambition, sacrifice and feminism, set in one of the world’s most patriarchal structures and features a largely authentic cast from the porn world.

Ninja Thyberg said: “I am incredibly happy that the film has been selected for Sundance. I showed the short film of the same name there in 2014, and have longed for the feature film to live in the US where it also takes place. The positive thing about the fact that this year’s festival is mostly digital, is that I get a chance to show the film to audiences in all states and I can’t wait to see their reaction!”