Slaves to the Underground

Shelley starts playing guitar in an all-girl rock band called The No Exits, but first she makes an abrupt break with her boyfriend Jimmy. The catalyst is that she has been raped by one of Jimmy's friends, but doesn't have the nerve to reveal what happened. Instead, she gets involved in a lesbian relationship with the singer of the band, Suzy, which soon develops into a complicated triangle drama.
The quality that unites the protagonists in ”Slaves to the Underground ”is their contempt for the stiff, established media society. When the girls in the rock band The No Exits aren't performing, they're storming newsagents who sell porno magazines, making frenzied attacks on rapists, and taking over radio programmes at stations that are prejudiced against women. The guitarist's former boyfriend, Jimmy, has instead decided to publish his own politically correct ''fanzine'', which has 200 subscribers and earns him a couple hundred bucks a month.
''Anyone can come out with a ''fanzine'', which is precisely what makes them so interesting,'' says director Kristine Peterson. ''There are ''fanzines'' on just about anything, from cars and science fiction, to love and relationships.''
After having made several action films in a row, Peterson wanted to change genres completely. She decided to depict the life around a few female rock musicians who are actively involved in Seattle's vibrant underground culture. The events in the film could, however, have taken place in any city, because fundamentally the film is about young people who still hold on to the belief that by becoming actively involved they can change things for the better.
There are several ways of looking at this ambitious and well-made independent film; as a tragicomic triangle drama with lesbian overtones, or else as a sharp and provocative satire of society. Even though the girls in many respects have extremist tendencies, Peterson and scriptwriter Bill Cody aren't tempted by cheap clichés. They have succeeded in making the characters in this film multifaceted and believable, even in the midst of this blind obsession for music and politics.
Lotta Svedberg

Premiärstatus
Skandinavisk premiär: Medverkande
Molly Gross, Marisa Ryan, Jason Bortz: Producent
Kristine Peterson, Bill Cody, Raquel Caballes Maxwell: Manus
Bill Cody: Foto
Zoran Hochstatter: Musik
Mike Martt: Talat språk
english