Thursday, 31 August 2023

VOD: Take A Chance (dir: Maria Thulin, 2023)

"...because it's not over..."

Amazon's controversial documentary film about Dutchman Gert van der Graaf, the obsessive stalker who developed some kind of relationship with - and ultimately terrorised - ABBA singer Agnetha Faltskog finally comes to the UK without fanfare and proves to be a chilling watch.  Shot like a classy version of a Channel 5 exploitationer, it charts his unwavering and obsessive determination and attachment for the star (since their Eurovision win when he was eight years old), as the documentary tries to take a sombre and restrained tone that enables the perpetrator to detail precisely the extent of his years-long campaign and demonstrates how a deluded mind can shape the world as they see it.  Faltskog declined to participate, which is unsurprising given the negative impact the stalker had on her which ended in a very public court case in Sweden and his deportation, but it does leave the questions around the extent and nature of their relationship unclear to say the least and leaves his own take on events unchallenged in an uncomfortable way.


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