On September 22, the Consulate General in collaboration with the Swedish Institute and New Zealand in Shanghai, showed the feature film Something Must Break from 2014, by the Swedish director Ester Martin Bergsmark, himself a transgender person.
The film, which among other things addresses gender expressions and identity issues has achieved great success notably after the screening at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. The screening at the New Zealand Consulate General was introduced by Consuls-General Stephen Wong and Marie-Claire Swärd Capra.
Culture is an important aspect of societal development and change. Not least film can be an effective medium for diversity and Sweden has a long tradition of giving voice to film to explore identities. The Swedish film director Mauritz Stiller, known for having discovered the legend Greta Garbo and himself a homosexual, made the film Vingarne more than 100 years ago, in 1916. Vingarne is believed to be the world's first film with homosexual content. Another example is Girl in Tails from 1926 by the Swedish female film director Karin Swanström, which has come to be seen both as a classic comedy and a groundbreaking feminist film. The Consulate General has shown Girl in Tails on two occasions this year in Shanghai.
