Gitarrmongot

Gitarrmongot is a pseudo-documentary about different people from Gothenburg. Their stories are not connected, but they all have a thing in common; what they do or what they are goes beyond the norms of society. The main character is a boy with Down's syndrome who spends his days playing a guitar downtown.

The style is the same throughout the film, the cameras position is fixed and there are only observations (i.e. no interviews or other forms of interaction). All scenes are directed and what you see is acting. However, the people are not actors, they are (mostly) the peoples whose story the director wants to tell (which explains the word pseudo-documentary).

The film is very open, so if you want some kind of message or moral from it you might get disappointed. The director has made several comments about the film and why he made it. I think his point was well made, but I'm not sure if I would have understood it without his comments. My best advice is to see the film with patience, take it for what it is. If you're puzzles search for interviews of the director.

I think this movie is kind of hard to rate because it is so hard to compare to other movies (wich is something i kind of like in itself). The narrating style is very open and the storyline or kind of lack of storyline makes it a very different film from what at least i am used to. I must admit that i am not sure what the director is trying to say with the film but.. do you really have to understand that when a film reach you in another level. The "main" characters in the movie are people you usually find uncomfortable to be around or even annoying. At the same time I found these feelings mixed with sympathy and sometimes pity. Watching gitarrmongot kind of "makes you" take a look at the people you usually pass by while looking in another direction. I do recommend it to anyone who think they can watch it with an open mind. If you just want to be entertained for an hour and a half and not reflect over the movie you probably are better off with something else. gitarrmongot is a movie that i will remember and that actually might have changed my views on the world if only for a tiny little bit or at least it made me think about this subject for a while.... for that I'm giving it a 9/10

Don't get me wrong, it's an interesting exercise for a debut if you consider the avant-garde use of a documentary-styled camera and the single shot scenes capturing completely unrelated events from afar. The film sugests Ostlund has a taste for vouyerism.

But the inexistent narrative would have benefit from taking the time to intercross stories or characters towards the end so that all the nothingness we've endured can lead us somewhere, but god no, it doesn't. Therefore you're left with the feeling of facing a long and dull videoartsy mockumentary piece, which I'm positive Ostlund himself is in a place to mock nowadays.