Film
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In central Gothenburg, a group of boys works a routine on other children: an accusation about a stolen phone, an offer to help sort it out, an afternoon that goes on much longer than anyone expects. Based on a series of real robberies.
About
Ruben Östlund's third feature premiered in the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes in 2011 and caused an argument in Sweden that lasted years. It reconstructs a pattern of robberies carried out in Gothenburg between 2006 and 2008, in which a group of boys used an elaborate script — the brother trick — rather than force.
Östlund films almost the whole thing in long static wide shots, often with the action pushed to the edge of the frame or partly out of it, so that the viewer is placed exactly where a passing adult would be: able to see that something is wrong and unable to say what. There is no score. The camera does not move to help. Two thirds of the way through, the film cuts away to a tram carriage and a mislaid cradle for several minutes, a joke that is also an argument about attention.
Accusations of racism from some Swedish commentators and a robust defence from others followed it around, and the debate is inseparable from what the film is doing — it withholds every interpretive cue and lets the audience supply its own. Uncomfortable in the way Force Majeure and The Square, both in the catalogue, would later refine, and more austere than either.
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Streaming availability via JustWatch. Last checked 2026-08-30.
Top Cast
Anas Abdirahman
Anas
Sebastian Blyckert
Sebastian
Yannick Diakité
Yannick
Kevin Vaz
Kevin
John Ortiz
John
Awards, Festivals & Mentions
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Winner — Nordic Council Film Prize (2012)
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Winner — Guldbagge Best Director (Ruben Östlund, 2012)
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Cannes Film Festival 2011 — Directors' Fortnight
