IRL (In Real Life) is a film about the evils among teenagers in the world of social media. Elias will not escape his tormentors. They are everywhere, in school, on the subway and spew their hatred of him online. He flees into The Secret World, an online game with thousands of players where Elias accepts the Invincible Warrior S:]iles guise. In the game, he meets Sc4rlet, a talented and beautiful girl soldier. Together they conquer their violent digital world. Sc4rlet want to meet Elias IRL (In Real Life). Hesitantly he agrees to be seen but well at the meeting place, where a very ordinary girl standing, he dare not go forward. Elias realizes that he will never meet Sc4rlet and decides to take his life that night.
Acting
Valter Skarsgård's hollow-eyed silence speaks louder than any dialogue.
Direction
Leijonborg blurs game/reality until you can't tell which hurts more.
Editing
Rapid cuts between pixelated violence and mundane humiliation — devastating.
Director
Erik Leijonborg
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Valter Skarsgård is part of Sweden's acting dynasty — his brothers are Bill and Alexander, making this family's range absurdly wide.
Released the same year a Swedish teenager's suicide made national headlines over online harassment, making this less fiction and more forecast.
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