Sweden

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence Nisse Westblom and Holger Andersson

GFF 2015: ‘A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence’ is droll but despairing

The final part in Roy Andersson’s “trilogy about a being a human being”, A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence is a droll but despairing inquiry into the human condition. Its thirty-nine distinct vignettes, each infused with recurring characters and repeated jokes, consolidate into a rumination on the absurdity of life and potential consequences of human dispassion. The eponymous pigeon, the least impressive exhibit in a dreary museum, appears in the opening scene, studied by a man whose wife is waiting resignedly in the corner. Like all the characters in the film, they are in stasis, trapped by their inexplicable attachments, habits and routines, mere artifacts in the wunderkammer that is life.

TIFF 2013: ‘We Are the Best!’ – pitch perfect writing and direction from Moodysson

When punk music first began to appear on the music scene in New York and London, the movement caused a veritable explosion. Punks were dirty, they swore, they spat, hated everyone in charge and didn’t care what anyone thought of them. The word punk means a hoodlum or worthless person. Punk embraced this as a point of pride. The punk movement was exciting but from the beginning it was a man’s world. This is the world that Lukas Moodysson’s heroines seek to change with their music in We Are the Best!

EIFF 2013: ‘Sanctuary’ is better when it stays simple

Sanctuary opens on a rural home in the Swedish countryside, the serenity of which is soon interrupted by the arrival of police. The child occupant Hella (Clara Christiansson), is questioned as to the location of her father, wanted on suspicion of murder. After they leave, the wanted man (Jakob Cedergren) returns, and the pair flee into large woodlands.

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