There is a painfully uncomfortable moment in the Swedish billiards short film Nine-Ball in which the main character, David, attempts to show off to his 10-year-old son Markus his “friends” playing nine-ball on the adjacent billiards table. Markus is clearly reluctant, not because he doesn’t want to play pool or doesn’t want to meet the friends, but because he intuitively knows there is something wrong with the situation. His fears are verified when the friends dismiss David, saying they would prefer to play by themselves. The awkwardness then explodes as David confronts them, saying (in Swedish), “ Why do you not want to play with me? I do not know what I am doing wrong.” The response he receives is neither anger nor apology, but a distant and condescending rejoinder that he “should take care of his son instead.”
As you might have guessed, Nine-Ball is not specifically about billiards, though about half the 12 minutes occur in a pool hall. Rather and never explicitly said, the short film, directed and produced on commission by Nikolina Gillgren in 2008, is about neuropsychiatric disorders, such as ADHD, Asperger’s and Tourette’s Syndrome, and how people who have these disorders, like the lead character David, struggle with social dysfunctional behavior and social exclusion.
Over email, Gillgren told me that she wanted to make a short film about fear, loneliness, and the discomfort that comes from social exclusion. She said, “Our society has difficulties accepting people with other views and behavior that what is considered as ‘normal,’ and that a lot of people who suffer from disorders endure discrimination and depression.”
The decision to set this story in a pool hall, and use billiards as the centerpiece of that social difficulty, was inspired by an individual Gillgren met at a summer camp as part of her research. “This guy really loved playing nine-ball. He played more or less every day all by himself. I thought it was such a good metaphor of the dilemma, since pool is [typically] such a social game.” Of course, it didn’t hurt that Gillgren herself was once very much into billiards, as well.
In the tender ending of the film, David opens up to his son that he “does not know what to do for them to like [him].” And while Nine-Ball wisely avoids providing any pithy solutions or uplifting reconciliation, the son’s simple embrace of his father suggests that he will not give up on him.
The billiards short film Nine-Ball is not available for public viewing, so I am very grateful to Nikolina Gillgren for enabling me to have private access. Since completing Nine-Ball, Gillgren has been working on a documentary about the Swedish Black Metal band, Watain, and their religious adherence to Satanism. She also just released the documentary Six Days about three women who lives thousands of miles apart, but are united in their struggles within their war-torn countries and their quests for a better life.
