INVOLUNTARY

19th October 2010

The runaway international financial and critical success of a wave of bestseller genre novels and movies including Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy, John Ajvide Lindqvist’s Let The Right One In and Henning Mankell’s Wallander series,
in both Swedish and English-language adaptations (for film and TV respectively) has stoked international interest in Sweden and Swedish filmmaking, focusing the spotlight on new Swedish talent and upcoming film production. The Swedish-language film adaptations of the Millennium novels, produced by Yellow Bird has alone grossed more than $174m worldwide to date.

First-time Swedish director-writer Ruben Östlund’s multi award-winning debut INVOLUNTARY is an inventive, social comedy of embarrassment akin to the stinging satires of Neil Labute or Todd Solondz. Delving into the nature of group dynamics, and the power of a group over the individual, Östlund’s perceptive ensemble piece depicts the imperfections and enmities of everyday life and potential catastrophes which lie behind each character’s moral dilemma with glacial wit.

At once humorous and poignant, each situation raises questions about the value of the opinions of others; a man injured at his own party prefers to soldier on through the festivities rather than ruin the night for everyone else; a group of teenage girls pout, preen and flirt, pushing one another further in social and sexual games; a schoolteacher carries out a psychological experiment on peer pressure; a bus driver refuses to resume the journey until a passenger admits their blame, and, at a drunken reunion a young man exploits his mates’ willingness to go with the flow to take advantage of another friend.

Sounds awesome!

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