Above the Knee

There is a condition called BID (Body Integrity Dysphoria) the sufferer of which has the desire to become disabled and is morbidly uncomfortable with their able-bodied status.

Amir (Freddy Singh) is ostensibly suffering from this psychological condition. He tried to cut off his leg which was taken as a suicide attempt by his partner Kim (Julie Abrahamsen). While recovering he becomes convinced that his leg is slowly rotting away. His way of handling this is by painting self-portraits of him without that leg and sitting with the leg folded under him.

A TV programme about BID has Kim remarking that the woman pretending to be blind is offensive while Amir takes a more understanding approach without giving away anything about his own real thoughts.

Amir contacts Rikke (Louise Waage Anda) as a journalist but before long she works out he too suffers from BID. A friendship develops as they begin to work out an accident that will ensure Amir loses his leg. Any other way would see him become a social pariah. What Amir hadn’t counted on was Rikke’s possessiveness and his own mental collapse.

Directed by Viljar Bøe, cowritten with Freddy Singh, this is not a deep character study nor an in depth study of the debilitating effects of BID. The two are developed enough to gain an understanding of Amir’s mental health and what BID is.

The film is built around Singh’s intense performance which dominates the proceedings, and only Waage Anda has a comparable role as they struggle with what they have created. And even here these don’t seem to be the priority.

That is making the viewer as uncomfortable as possible using a very rare proven psychological condition. Not through graphic images but by planting the idea in the viewer’s head and not allowing any release until the end of the film.

The flashbacks and the intermittent countdown to the ‘accident’ create a degree of anticipation, if not any real tension. I doubt that was ever the intention and in some respects this is a one dimensional film using an individual with an unusual condition to disturb an audience.

Above the Knee had its UK premiere at London FrightFest, August 2025