Synopsis
Several years ago an adolescent gang in Göteborg began robbing other kids – but they didn’t use violence or even skill, opting instead for a psychological ploy. This event inspired director Ruben Östlund to create a psychological drama positing the theory that the teenage thieves’ motives were not based on acquiring goods, but on the pleasure found in dominance and wanton manipulation. After all, to a certain extent, all human interaction involves playing games. This carefully developed movie succeeds in both holding the viewer’s attention and in building palpable suspense. The film shows the child protagonists and those around them in all their ambiguity, intensified by the various situations in which they find themselves. In addition to a highly developed ability to delve into the characters’ behavior, the work benefits from the director’s powerful vision. In achieving it, he relies on simply shot situations, which thus assume a high degree of authenticity, and on subtle humor and precise staging in a style reminiscent of Roy Andersson.
Credits
Director (1)
Production and distribution (3)
- Co-production : Coproduction Office
- Foreign production companies : Sonet Film, Film i Väst
- Film exports/foreign sales : Coproduction Office
Full credits (1)
- Screenwriter : Ruben Östlund
Media Gallery
Technical details
- Type : Feature film
- Genres : Fiction
- Production language : Swedish
- Coproducer countries : France, Denmark
- Original French-language productions : Unspecified
- Production year : 2011
- French release :
- Runtime : 1 h 58 min
- Current status :
- Approval :
- Color type : Color
