The Case (2013) takes its starting point from popular crime fiction and in particular the opposing genres of Nordic (or Scandinavian) Noir and popular British TV crime drama.
The narrative is constructed around a relationship between a female and a male detective who are apparently investigating a crime in a small town. Their conversations take place around a series of extracted scenarios from a fictitious investigation: the crime scene, the police squad room, and the aftermath of an arrest. All of the dialogue and voiceovers in the film are re-enactments from a series of transcribed recordings in which members of the general public were invited to talk about their perception of real crime versus popular crime drama.
The structure of the film plays with the fictional and documentary origins of the narrative by mixing voiceover segments with actors playing roles in what appears to be a more constructed drama. The drama is then juxtaposed with cut away scenes of breath-taking views of the sea and the surrounding landscape of the picturesque town of Berwick. The location of Berwick builds on the trope of setting crime drama in small respectable towns, towns that in reality are generally safe places where few actual acts of random crime ever take place..
The Case is entirely shot in and around Berwick upon Tweed, Northumberland, North East England. The film was commissioned by Berwick Visual Arts and Berwick Film & Media Festival.
Produced together with Mat Fleming. Cinematography by Minttumaari Mäntynen and edited by Edwin Mingard.
Further links:
http://www.berwickvisualarts.co.uk/whats-on/21/cecilia-stenbom-the-case-world-premiereAV-Arkki:
https://www.av-arkki.fi/works/the-case/
Interview in Corridor 8:
https://corridor8.co.uk/article/interview-cecilia-stenbom-2/
Cecilia Stenbom 