I Am Curious (Yellow) 1967

Vilgot Sjöman outlines a social film project

Director Vilgot Sjöman announces plans to make a social film starring his lover Lena, a young theatre student. The project frames Lena as a vehicle to explore issues of class, gender, and morality. It sets up a production that will blur the lines between cinema and social critique.

Lena's room as a hub of ideas and memory

Lena's small Stockholm apartment is filled with books, papers, and boxes of clippings about religion and men. Her 23 files on lovers line the shelves, while photographs of concentration camps and a Franco portrait loom on the walls. The room becomes a microcosm of her hunger to understand the world through others' lives.

Lena interviews the public on social issues

Lena walks around Stockholm interviewing people about social classes, conscientious objection, gender equality, and the morality of vacationing in Franco's Spain. She and her friends also picket embassies and travel agencies, turning conversations into public events.

Family history and tension with her father

Lena's relationship with her father is fraught; he briefly went to Spain to fight Franco in the International Brigades and returned for unclear reasons. His absence and return haunt Lena as she navigates her own activism and love.

Lena meets Bill and begins an affair

Lena meets Bill, a slick menswear shop employee who voted for the Rightist Party, and they begin a passionate affair. The relationship tests Lena's ideals against a pragmatic, unreliable lover.

Discovery of Bill's other lovers and a countryside escape

She discovers that Bill has another woman, Marie, and a young daughter. She then travels to the countryside on a bicycle holiday to seek distance and clarity.

An ascetic retreat in the woods

In a cabin in the woods, Lena undertakes an ascetic retreat, meditating, studying nonviolence, and practicing yoga while isolating herself from Bill. The retreat becomes a crucible for her beliefs and mounting tension with the outside world.

A tense reunion at the cabin

Bill arrives in a new car; Lena greets him with a shotgun, a tense moment that quickly gives way to intimate closeness. They fight, then make love as the night deepens.

Revelations and Bill's departure

Lena confronts Bill about Marie and discovers Madeleine, another lover. The confrontation ends with Bill leaving, deepening Lena's sense of betrayal.

Dreams of violence and nonviolence

Lena's dreams blend surreal imagery with fear of violence: soccer players tied to a tree labeled 23, she shoots Bill and cuts his penis. She also dreams of drivers taunting her as she cycles, until Martin Luther King Jr. drives up, and she apologizes for not being strong enough to practice nonviolence.

Return home and destruction of the room

After the dreams, Lena returns home and destroys her room, signaling a breakdown of the self she had curated. The outburst marks a turning point as she confronts the consequences of her pursuits.

Showroom encounter and clinic treatment

Lena goes to the car showroom to tell Bill she has scabies, a small ruse that triggers contact with him. They are treated at a clinic, and afterwards they go their separate ways.

The film crew intrudes and the on‑set affair

Alongside Lena's personal story, the embedded film project with the director Sjöman grows more prominent, drawing attention within the production. The on-screen dynamic between Lena the actress and Bill the actor deepens, fueling jealousy and clashes with Bill.