The crowd Oleg was taunting in the dinner scene, throwing water over and pushing around, were in fact drawn from the actual ranks of Sweden's 1 percent, including some of the country's wealthiest art patrons ("They were so into it," Terry Notary said).
Terry Notary portrays the ape-man "Oleg" in the film. The Russian artist Oleg Kulik was invited to the international group exhibition "Interpol" at Färgfabriken, Stockholm, Sweden. At the opening, the vernissage, Kulik performed like a dog. He glittered, jumped up, rolled and even bit the VIP crowd on their legs. Kulik said he acted as a representative of the browbeaten Russian people, who now attacked and bit back. The crowd became so scared and enraged that they called for the police. In this movie, there is a similar, charged and offensive scene, but here the performance artist acts like an ape.
The ape that appears in the film is a full grown female bonobo.
The voice warns that the animal is trained to sense weakness and fear, so the best defense is to stay very still and hope for the misfortune of others. "It's about the bystander effect. The reason we don't have the ability to take responsibility in situations like that is because we are herd animals and we get scared, and when we get scared we get paralyzed. And we're thinking, don't take me, don't take me, take someone else." said Ruben Östlund.
In one scene, a man with Tourette's syndrome yells at a reporter. Ruben Östlund said this was inspired by a true incident at a Swedish theatre and was depicted without fear of insensitivity, since he said all people are satirised in his work.