Instead of a major storyline, this film has 46 discontinuous episodes, taking place in a variety of bleak locations somewhere in Sweden. The participants all have some connection to a businessman who torched his shop for the insurance money. The characters are a rich assortment of the weird and wonderful, and as they muddle through their lives, they provide dark, comedy for us viewers. Swedish with English subtitles.
98 minutes, No persons under 16
Comedy, On the Art Circuit
Lars Nordh, Stefan Larsson, Bengt C.W. Carlsson, Torbjörn Fahlström, Sten Andersson
Director
Roy Andersson
Screenplay
Roy Andersson
Music
Benny Andersson
Cinematography
István Borbás, Jesper Klevenas, Robert Komarek
Sound formats
Dolby Digital, Sony Dynamic Digital Sound, DTS
Soundtrack
Not available
Made in
2000
Produced by
Danmarks Radio, Nordisk Film & TV-Fond, Norsk Rikskringkasting, Roy Andersson Filmproduktion AB, SVT Drama, Svenska Filminstitutet
Ratings
Scale (Max)
20
South African Media
The MoviesiteIan Douglas
3
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15
Cape TimesWilhelm Snyman
15
The StarTanya Farber
12
Die BurgerFrancois Smith
15
Total MovieTat Wolfen
10
International Media
eye Weekly (Canada)Jason Anderson
20
Internet (IMDB)619 Netizens
15
Average .. 66%
13
Visitor Comments
Ian Douglas: I probably misunderstood this. It is a apparently a black comedy, but the humour is extremely dark, and not
the sort that you will regularly laugh out loud at. Some scenes hit alarm bells in my head, saying that ''here is a parody of
real life'', which made me think that perhaps more of the scenes were also parodies and that I had totally missed the point. Maybe
I'm just to stupid or cinematically illiterate to fathom it. The film itself consists of a number of set pieces, with a stationary
camera and almost stationary actors, and nearly all with sickly green colour schemes. Often, there is something happening in the background which is more interesting than the
foreground action. The film is likely to offend Christians, as it is rather insulting and dismissive of some aspects of Christianity.
The scene where a young girl is sacrificed is particulary haunting, (one of those ''alarm bell'' scenes), and I'm not sure whether the
makers are attacking religion or war or society or all three. Overseas reviewers, including Cannes, have raved about this so if
you are able to handle an offbeat art movie, you may find it worthwhile.
