Three white boys aged about 12 are surrounded in a large shopping mall by five black kids, just a little older. Do they know the time? When one of them takes out his mobile phone, the game starts: that phone belongs to the younger brother of one of the attackers, he argues loudly. Let’s just go and ask him. And that is the start of an apparently endless journey, filmed in real time from the centre to the suburbs, driven by the constantly shifting group dynamics.
Director and scriptwriter Ruben Östlund (Involuntary) based his film on true events: a group of kids managed to rob about 40 other children between 2006 and 2008 in Östlund’s home town of Göteborg in the roundabout yet non-violent way shown in the film in long, distant takes. Östlund was allowed to study the legal documents surrounding the case and spoke to culprits and victims in order to build up his powerful analysis layer by layer.
Please note: during the screening on Sat 4-2, this film is subtitled in Dutch.
Film details
- Countries of production
- Denmark, France, Sweden
- Year
- 2011
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2012
- Length
- 113'
- Medium/Format
- 35mm
