Oscar-winning director of 'Searching for Sugar Man' became depressed in wake of film's success and committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a subway train

  • Malik Bendjelloul, 36, committed suicide on May 13 by throwing himself in front of a subway train at Stockholm's Solna Centrum station
  • His death comes just one year after he won an Academy Award for his documentary 'Searching for Sugar Man'
  • Friends say he had become isolated and lonely while struggling to find a new project to work on

By Ashley Collman

Published: 18:27 EST, 12 June 2014 | Updated: 20:13 EST, 12 June 2014

Last month, Oscar-winning filmmaker Malik Bendjelloul committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a train at Stockholm's Solna Centrum station during rush hour.

Malik Bendjelloul's untimely death at the age of 36 came just a year after he won an Academy Award for his ground-breaking documentary 'Searching for Sugar Man' and initially bewildered many friends.

But those close to Bendjelloul witnessed a dramatic change of attitude in recent months, as the Swedish director dealt with his new-found celebrity and struggled to find another passion project.

'I know he had been depressed for a short period and depression is something you can die from,' his older brother Johar Bendjelloul announced the following day. 'But the question of why, no one can answer; it will ache in my chest the rest of my life.'

Still, the sudden suicide shocked other friends, like Karin afKlintberg who called Bendjelloul the 'happiest person I knew'.

'If I think of every person I've met in my whole life, he was the least likely to take his life -- the least,' Klinterberg told the Hollywood Reporter.

Descent into depression: Swedish filmmaker Malik Bendjelloul committed suicide last month, a year after he won the Academy Award for best documentary. Pictured above receiving the award

Descent into depression: Swedish filmmaker Malik Bendjelloul committed suicide last month, a year after he won the Academy Award for best documentary. Pictured above receiving the award

End of the line: Bendjelloul committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a train at Stockholm's Solna Centrum subway station. Above, one of the platforms at the station

End of the line: Bendjelloul committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a train at Stockholm's Solna Centrum subway station. Above, one of the platforms at the station

Last days: Bendjelloul's friends told the Hollywood Reporter how he had become increasingly isolated lonely in his last year of life

Last days: Bendjelloul's friends told the Hollywood Reporter how he had become increasingly isolated lonely in his last year of life

While none of his friends or family know what plagued Benjelloul for certain, they did notice changes in his personality following the crazy success of Sugar Man, a documentary about a long-lost South African musical icon found living in poverty in Detroit.

Benjelloul poured his heart into the documentary, working on it for five years. But after winning the Academy Award for the film, he didn't know what to do next.

Before his death, he had been living for months in New York, writing for a new project on a South African conservationist. But the big city had turned Benjelloul into an insomniac and he confessed to at least one close friend that he felt lonely.

Early in May, he returned home to Sweden where he met with Klintberg, and she offered him a new project to work on, which she thought would be a good transition from Sugar Man.

He started work on May 5, but the very next day wrote Klintberg saying he wasn't interested in the project anymore.

'I can't come in to do this,' Bendjelloul told her. 'I want to have a small challenge, not too big a challenge.'

Bendjelloul would die exactly a week later.

Friends believe that it was his challenge finding a new project after such early success that might have caused him to sink into mental illness.

'In [my limited exposure to depression, it's the darkness, it's completely like there's no hope,' Benjelloul's mentor Per Sinding Larsen said. 'I was wondering if there was something that made him go up and down, but which he dealth with through his work, his movie - and suddently there wasn't anything. There was a silent period. And so the darkness comes up.'

Up all night: Recently, Bendjelloul had been living in New York working on a new project, but had developed insomnia

Up all night: Recently, Bendjelloul had been living in New York working on a new project, but had developed insomnia

There were also certain eccentricities that may have been clues of a deeper, lingering mental illness.

Benjelloul had a strict work regimen, involving a lap around his apartment at the beginning and end of the work day. He would also write uninterrupted every day from 8am to noon. And if he slept in, he would turn the clocks back to 8am so he wouldn't be thrown off his routine.

These habits extended outside of work as well. Friends say he would eat the same breakfast every day just for the thrill of being able to change the meal after six months.

And one time, he broke up with a girlfriend to end the relationship at exactly four years, four months and four days.

'It always seemed totally reasonable when he said it,' recalls Klintberg. 'He was very convincing.'

In retrospect, Kilntberg says these habits may have been a way to distract from deeper issues.

'It was like he was creating ways to not be disappointed,' she said, 'so he wasn't disappointed, until now. And when it came, it struck him so hard because he wasn't used to it. I think that this [depression] was a total shock for him and very unexpected. He didn't have the tools to handle this situation. It was like a psychosis, I think.

Bendjelloul's Oscar-winning film is about a South African musical legend found living in poverty in Detroit

Bendjelloul's Oscar-winning film is about a South African musical legend found living in poverty in Detroit

Searching for Sugar Man, which detailed the life and career of American singer Sixto Rodriguez, won the Oscar for best documentary in 2013.

He also won the BAFTA, Director's Guild of America, Producer's Guild of America, Writer's Guild of America and Sundance audience award.

Bendjelloul grew up in central and southern Sweden as the child of a painter and a translator.

He acted in Swedish TV-series Ebba and Didrik as a child during the 1990s.

He studied journalism and media-production at the Linnaeus University of Kalmar in southern Sweden and later worked as a reporter for Swedish public broadcaster SVT.

He resigned from that job to travel the world and he got the idea for Searching for Sugar Man during one of his trips.

Bendjelloul directed, produced, edited and co-wrote the 2012 film that chronicles two South Africans who set out to find their folk music hero

•  For confidential help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or visit http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

Comments (7)

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Reading your comments is making down right depressed.

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Depression id a dreadful monster...If one is open to it, there is help. And it always help to be open about it. It should never be kept a secret. a friend of mine suffers from severe depression, i never knew it until 7 years into our friendship. I got her into running everyday and watching her diet carefully together with her meds. She is like sunshine now. But it is one day at a time. Hope he is at peace.

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Sounds like he had horrible anxiety and was OCD too, that's a tough combo to live with, poor chap.

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poor thing, depression affects all people in all walks of life

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Does it? you are a wise person. Or are you just regurgitating things you heard?

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Depression is horrible, it can override logic, love from family and friends, and make you feel hopeless, no matter how successful you may seem on the outside. RIP

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You said it so well...thank you , it is just that : horrible irrationality ...but always irrationality, regardless of each person's circumstances ..suicide is given many various explanations , at the final count it is irrational thinking that drove the action into effect...

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