Written and Directed by: Ruben Ostlund
Streaming on MUBI.
The film is based on a real robbery that took place in Stockholm, and the film is a recreation of that event. It's a single-shot film, there are no cuts. And it's an ensemble piece done by over 90 people. Firstly, it even looks very challenging simply because the sheer space of the frame is so huge, that I was wondering how they managed to co-ordinate every person at the exact timing throughout the film. And there's action too. It's not like a talkie drama. It's a robbery. Though the film is a single shot thing, the frame keeps changing as the camera keeps panning and zooming in. I don't exactly know how to feel about this, because at one point it feels good because the frame is dynamic, but on the other hand, I ended up thinking, why do a single shot in the first place if you're panning and zooming in any way, if not for the technical style.
As far as the act was concerned, it was beautifully choreographed and acted out. It just felt like a bystander was recording the whole thing on a handicam and we were looking at the footage. It felt really authentic. The last time I felt the same while watching something was in a fight scene in Asghar Farhadi's A Hero, it felt so real. The fighting. This film definitely held the authenticity. It's interesting to see a filmmaker who's done multiple feature films, do a short. I think there's a lot of difference in writing and making a film, and a short. Because the medium of shorts, opens up a lot of creativity. You can break a lot of rules, simply because the time of investment is less. I hope there come more anthology segments so that we can see all the big filmmakers trying the form of a short.
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