SE, DK, FI | 2011 | 118 min
reż|dir Ruben Östlund prod|pro Erik Hemmendorff scen|wr Erik Hemmendorff, Ruben Östlund zdj|ph Marius Dybwad Brandrud mon|ed Jacob Secher Schulsinger ob|cast Kevin Vaz, Sebastian Blyckert, Anas Abdirahman, Yannick Diakité, John Ortiz, Abdiaziz Hilowle

Film based on a true story. In a shopping centre in Goteborg five teenagers stop three younger boys to ask about the time. When one of them takes out his mobile phone to answer he becomes accused of having stolen it from a brother of the older boy. “The phone looks just the same” says the teenager, showing no doubt. Although the accused denies it vigorously, they all go out of the centre to confront the alleged previous phone owner. This is a beginning of a cruel and perverse game where a gang of older boys become the tormenter and the younger ones the victim.  

A few years ago a group of dark-skinned boys robbed children by means of psychological violence. The film provoked a heated discussion in Sweden. Depicting contemporary Swedish society, the director Ruben Östlund aimed at sparking a debate not only on racism but also on aggression and juvenile violence.  

Awards
2012 Dublin IFF – Dublin Film Critics Special Jury Prize

Ruben Östlund (1974)
A Swedish director. He commenced his career as a director of ski-related films in the ’90s. Eventually, he attended a film school in Gothenburg  to graduate in 2001. Together with a producer Erik Hemmendorff he founded Plattform Produktion, a production company that produces his films. His short film Incident by a bank (2009) won a Golden Bear at Berlin festival.