Pål Hollender: PELLE POLIS

“Pål Hollender’s work revolves around power and responsibility, abuse and unequal relations. His 1996 film ‘Journal’ is perhaps one of the most elusive works I have encountered: a story dealing with a sexual assault committed against him by a friend’s father when he was thirteen. /…/ Now Hollender has made a sequel, Pelle Polis (shown at Galleri Index), where the focus has shifted from himself as a victim to a perpetrator. The film’s ‘main character’ is a police officer convicted for sexually harassing a minor. ‘Pelle Polis’ has a more documentary character than ‘Journal’ and is based on a journalistic dig. Facts and confessions that would be explosive in newspapers and television. But Hollender’s treatment of the material goes beyond the form of journalism, not least when it comes to ethics. /…/ It is about pedophilia, about men who do not think that sexual intercourse with young people is wrong and who have organized themselves to lower the age limits for when intercourse should be punishable. Who think that the problem with pedophilia is more the hysteria of our culture than the age of the children. Who say that the initiative often comes from the young. Hollender lets several people speak, but does not hide his disgust for their opinions.”

Translated quote from DN, 1998-10-27, Milou Allerholm. Read full text in Swedish.

“Pål Hollender, through his participation in ‘Robinson’, has been visible on every television set. But it is actually only Galleri Index that showed ‘Pelle Polis’, a film about pedophilia, by Pål Hollender. It has not been shown ‘in galleries etcetera’, as Mikael Löfgren vaguely puts it (DN 17/12). The decision to show the film was easy to make, despite the fact that the film’s main character ‘Pelle’ threatened to sue. However, we had many discussions within the gallery, speaking of the film, about ethics and morals.”

Translated quote from DN, 1998-12-20, Karina Ericson Wärn. Read full text in Swedish.