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DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT ABOUT INVOLUNTARY
About ten years ago I played a computer game. The aim of the game was to build and maintain a city and all that it entails. It was played from a bird’s eye perspective, with humans represented by small dots. One of the icons in the game could start natural catastrophes, or even create nuclear meltdown. One press of the icon resulted in pandemonium amongst the inhabitants, and from a bird’s eye perspective this could very much be compared to the activities in an ant hill when touched by a stick.
I felt that the emotional distance created by the game’s design instigated in me a new ability to observe; I was able to observe in an interested yet distanced manner, without judging and without any feelings of discomfort (not for the ants either for that matter!) Looking back, I would say that it made me more reflective, more contemplative. I get the same kind of feeling from films where the photographer captures events without first having evaluated their contents. I don’t always achieve this in my own films, of course, but I always strive to strike a balance between presence and absence of my own values.
(Source: Coproduction Office Cannes IFF Press Book)
FORCE MAJEURE (Turist, 2014)
An avalanche in the French Alps sends a father scurrying for his life, leaving behind his panicked wife and children, in Östlund’s examination of the conflict between social role and survival instinct.
PLAY (2011)
Unabashedly impolite, Östlund’s record of racially charged harassment and societal paralysis offers food for thought and fuel for fury.
INCIDENT BY A BANK (Händelse vid bank, 2009)
Based on an actual account of a bank robbery witnessed by two bystanders across the street, Östlund’s concise study of surveillance may remind some viewers of Michael Haneke’s Caché.
INVOLUNTARY (De ofrivilliga, 2008)
Described by Östlund as “a tragic comedy or a comic tragedy,” the director’s second feature draws uneasy laughter through five examinations of bourgeois group dynamics.
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SCENE NUMBER 6882 (Scen nr: 6882 ur mitt liv, 2005)
A young man has second thoughts about his boast to jump from a bridge in this penetrating critique of peer pressure and the fragile male psyche.
GITARRMONGOT (2004)
Östlund’s mostly nonprofessional cast brings a documentary quality to this compassionate, humorous portrait of outsiders and nonconformists, focusing in particular on the titular musician, a young man facing dire obstacles in life.
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