De ofrivilliga

Young Swedish director Ruben Östlund made a strong debut with "Gitarrmongot". It was a very personal way of narration. In "De ofrivilliga" he gives even more promises.

Five episodes, involving five very different kinds of Swedish people. But they get one thing in common and that is a very destructive group pressure in very different ways. The acting is really superb, although you hardly have seen any of these people on the screen before, with the exception of Maria Lundquist.

Östlund works with very special camera angles. Sometimes you don't see the heads of those who are talking. Sometimes you will have to look around for a couple of seconds to find the main character, who is somewhere else than you're used too. This is a challenging movie in many ways, which makes you think and feel. And there are truly strong thoughts and feelings.

Five independent stories which all possess an admirable wit and acuity. They all share one thing - the involved have to stand up for their own will and resist the so often overwhelming peer pressure that we all at some point has been the victim of.

Ruben Östlund has created a sleek, straight and accurate film where the acting is unbeatable. We have to be alert, listen and try to keep up with the sometimes very complicated plot. The camera is rolling and it allows all the involved to take all the space. The stories has a strange sense of normalcy on the surface, and the every day situations succeeds each other with finesse, perfectly knitted together until the end without any forced resolution or final connection. It is this kind of story I feel can be associated with Sweden. This may be our future culture imprint.

Ruben Östlund possesses a narration that grabs at his audience and he is not afraid to challenge. It is exciting despite unremarkable equality in the presentation, and the persons in the five stories, feel very real.

The camera angles were interestingly different. Made you think about the conversations and not focus so much on the shallowness of what I call: eye candy syndrome, which Hollywood so likes to depict. One thing that did disturb me when reading reviews was that a few of the very positive ones contained the same misspellings. That is hardly a coincidence. Back to the film: There seemed to be too many thematic subplots going on, despite other reviews that seem to say: "hey, that mirrors life". But generally, the film was entertaining and was an interesting diversion. The homo-erotic male-bonding deal with the guys seemed a bit contrived. I couldn't figure the rhyme or reason there.

Difficult to believe this was chosen as the 2008 Swedish entry at Cannes and as best foreign language film at the A.A.! Must have been a lean year. Perhaps director Ruben Ostlund should have stuck with making Ski films - as this could be watched in 2 x speed and nothing would be missed. Boring, static single camera setups that when not cutting off people's heads - concentrates on feet while 'attempting' to tell a simple story. It looks and feels like something intended as a series of short, educational vignettes, that were then found to be highly unsuitable for school use so, strung together for Cinema or TV. Any interest is quickly killed off by overlong scenes that ramble aimlessly with very little point of view to sustain its 100 min run time. Only the easily pleased lovers of cheap experimental or student style works could find much interest. One story involving a bunch of young men on a drunken weekend could have easily been dropped and is especially vulgar. Such an unpleasant disappointment.

For the last few months i've stumbled upon quite a few Swedish movies, and for me, personally, it's a grand discovery! I love and appreciate low budget movies. For me, producing more with less always seemed an outcome of cinematic expertise. That kind of Minimalism makes this movie great. The themes and situations displayed in this movie are so relatable, and i bet you'll find your self giggling (for a wide Spectrum of reasons: from sympathy to embarrassment). It's light and have a natural flow, the acting is very authentic and sensitive. The script is superb, and the camerawork also contributes to the "Ostlund experience", together forming an honourable picture.