Sylwia Zając has 600,000 followers on Instagram. Her fitness training program Sweat is worshipped in her native Poland and beyond. Sylvia returns the love to her audiences, starting every Instagram story with “my dears,” but away from the camera, she is extremely lonely: motivating others non-stop, she is looking for someone who could motivate her in return. After her teary video about not having a boyfriend goes viral, Sylvia gets a stalker. Magnus von Horn’s comedy-drama filmed in Poland, was screened in the official selection at Cannes 2020.
Sweat shows the dark side of Internet fame: sexual objectivation, stalking, and the inability to match one’s own media image. On posters, Sylwia is in perfect shape—beautiful and invincible. But in real life, she is so lonely that she treats her terrier Jackson like a baby. She has no friends, and her American success-driven lifestyle of self-care pushes her away from her conservative family to whom vegan equals gay.
Magdalena Koleśnik is brilliant in the role of Sylwia, who is desperate behind her brave and energetic façade: glowing during workouts and fading when she fails to find reassurance in her immediate circle.
Sweat
Director: Magnus von Horn
Poland, Switzerland, 2020. 100 min. 18+