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Identity problems and false confessions

Leslie on Fire / False Confessions
Regissør: Stefan Berg,Katrine Philp
(Sverige/Tyskland,Danmark)

Identity problems among young immigrants in Sweden, and the need for better legal security in the US: Sofielund and New York are the framework for two new Nordic documentaries.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

Scandinavian whole-night documentaries often look beyond their own borders when looking for subject, protagonist and setting. Alongside the well-deserved winners of the best Nordic documentary, The Deminer by Hogir Hirori, and Simon Lereng Wilmonts The Distant Barking of Dogs, which won the audience award last fall, only a few of the nominated films were filmed in a Nordic country. Therefore, it was even nicer to see that the opening film, Leslie on Fire by Stefan Berg, brought us a little closer to the local communities in Malmö. Also False Confessions by Katrine Philp, who won the audience award at this year's CPH: DOX, was nominated.

Leslie on Fire gives us a look into the local community Sofielund – a highly segregated area in Malmö, characterized by poverty and crime – where we meet 14 year-old Leslie Tay. Although the protagonist is very similar and talks openly about his feelings, it seems that Stefan Berg has not quite been able to decide what his theme really is – therefore it lacks a bit of depth in the film.

Getto-brand

Young Leslie Tay is a dreamer; he talks and walks like a gangster and wants to be a rock star. When his mother leaves Sweden to return to Ghana, Leslie has to move in with his violent father whom he does not know very well, but is still afraid of. He gets in trouble with both the school and the police, and Leslie's best friend is sent back to Iran because of bad behavior. Things don't look very promising.

Then the film takes a sudden leap into the future: 13 years later, and Leslie is one of the most promising RnB talents in Sweden. It's a shame the film doesn't show us the way there – it would have been interesting at least to get a glimpse into the inner journey the main character has made.

The most valuable thing this film has is the black and white video footage of Leslie as a youngster; they introduce us to the "gangster" environment of the youth gangs. The video material from the early 2000s is an interesting contrast to today's situation: Leslie as a rawskin versus Leslie as a hard-working artist; Leslie as an abandoned youth versus Leslie with a cheering horde of fans.

Although Leslie receives several awards as a producer and songwriter for other musicians, he constantly postpones releasing his own debut album. This is presented as his biggest challenge: It is clear that Leslie will not release anything until he is confident that people will love him. In other words: He thinks strategically.

Leslie on Fire gives us a look into a segregated area in Malmö.

We follow Leslie through the writing process and feel a certain confusion about how the unarticulated young boy has grown up to be a sensitive poet. However, he seems to be living a lonely life; we never see him do anything but work. Even when he receives the award as Sweden's most well – dressed man – which can be seen as a metaphor for his climb up the social ladder – we get the impression that Leslie does not feel at home on the red carpet at all. "I often think of Sofielund," he says. But where are the people from his past?

The film comes to an end when Leslie decides to make a music video in Ghana. Again he is back in his mother's home, but this time it is not a social housing in Sweden, but a mansion in Ghana – and we realize that Leslie has many identities. We can only be amazed by the contrasts; what appeared to be a hard and immature child turned out to be a deeply wounded and skinless person.

False confessions

False Confessions Director Katrine Philp

Ever since Netflix launched the documentary series Making a Murderer In 2015, the topic of false confessions has engaged many viewers. We got goosebumps when we saw police interrogate 16-year-old Brendan Dassey. Police promised this mentally retarded boy with a borderline diagnosis that they would let him go home if he confessed to raping and killing a woman he claimed he had never met. Dassey was interrogated four times in 4 hours. His parents had not been notified; he also received no legal assistance. He collapsed under pressure from the police, signed under a forced confession and ended up with a life sentence. We were shocked by the scandalous police work, and considered this to be a one-time tragedy.

False Confessions by Katrine Philp reveals that these tragedies happen often. US police systematically use methods that can make anyone confess to anything. In other words: The high number of false confessions is not the result of separate coincidences, as the documentary series The Confession Tapes (2017) on Netflix gives the impression of.

The main character in False Confessions, the Danish-born defense lawyer Jane Fisher-Byrialsen in New York, takes us on a journey where we visit four of her former clients, all of whom were forced to confess. They were convicted after the confession, but ended up being released. In addition, we get insight into an ongoing case she will present in court. It's a lengthy process, which she states at the beginning of the film; Once the police have obtained a confession, they stop looking for new possible culprits or follow up on other evidence in the case. The lawyer must hire a private detective and re-investigate the case, looking for new evidence he or she can present to the court. This is why it is so difficult to try such cases again.

Another obstacle is the fact that when the police record a confession, the jury is less likely to acknowledge any evidence that shakes the confession. But what the jury and the judge are not allowed to know about are the methods the police used to obtain these confessions. Often the confessions are so detailed that the jury has difficulty doubting their authenticity. However, the jury does not know that it is common practice among law enforcement officers to feed the suspects with details from the crime scene in advance of the forced confession.

Reid technique

All the methods mentioned above are listed in The Reid Techniquemanual, which is widely used in police training programs. It is a handbook that gives a detailed description of how a suspect should be kept in a small room, how the police officer should stand vis-à-vis the suspect to most easily get a confession. It even advises the police to lie to the suspect: to claim that they have DNA or other strong evidence linking the person to the crime.

Police methods can make anyone confess to anything.

Psychology professor Saul Kassin explains that "lying to people about facts can change their observations, their memory, and virtually every aspect of their cognitive understanding." Some suspects sign the confession after several hours of interrogation, believing that the DNA trace will prove their innocence. However, once they have received a confession, the police will not bother to collect DNA evidence or other evidence.

The Cinemascope camera and the charming film music (composed by Jonas Colstrup) create a strong and seductive introduction to the film. Therefore, it can be a bit disappointing that it turns out to be a documentary – we do not have a star protagonist we can identify with. The lawyer is a little too cool; we do not get close to her on a personal level. We must also not get close to the victims in the individual cases. This is a weakness – False Confessions would otherwise be a brilliant film.

Still, the movies are important; they have launched a global dialogue on wrongful convictions, false confessions and the need for a reform of criminal law. When we consider that the US Supreme Court recently rejected Brendan Dassey's appeal for resumption, it seems that we need to make more noise before justice is done.

Margareta Hruza
Margareta Hruza
Hruza is a Czech / Norwegian filmmaker and regular critic of Ny Tid.

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