Synopsis
A model Swedish family - handsome businessman Tomas, his wife Ebba and their two beautiful children - are on a skiing holiday at a high-end resort in the French Alps. The sun is shining and the slopes are spectacular, but during lunch at a mountainside restaurant, an avalanche suddenly bears down on the happy diners. With people fleeing in all directions and his wife and children in a state of panic, Tomas makes a decision that will shake his marriage to its core and leave him struggling to reclaim his role as family patriarch. A critical favourite at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, where it took the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard category, Force Majeure is a wickedly funny and precisely-observed black comedy that marks Ruben Östlund as one of Europe’s most piercingly intelligent filmmakers.
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Ruben Östlund
Ruben Östlund was born in 1974 in Styrso, a small island off the West Coast of Sweden. He studied graphic design before enrolling at the University of Gothenburg, where he met producer Erik Hemmendorff with whom he later founded Plattform Produktion. An avid skier, Östlund directed three ski films, alluding to his taste for long sequence shots, a taste he structured and developed throughout his film studies and which to this day remains an important trademark of his work. Ruben has become well-known for his hulèbre morous and accurate portrayal of human social behaviour, as well as for his renowned use of Photoshop and other forms of image processing software in his films.
His feature debut The Guitar Mongoloid, produced by the cofounder of Plattform Produktion Erik Hemmendorff, won the FIPRESCI Award at Moscow in 2005. Involuntary premiered at Un Certain Regard 2008. The film was then distributed in more than 20 countries and shown at numerous festivals, awarding Ruben international recognition. Two years later, he won the Golden Bear in Berlin for Incident in a Bank, a short film in which every camera movement was computer generated in post-production. The premiere of his third feature film Play (2011) was held in Cannes at The Director’s Fortnight, where he was awarded the Coup de Coeur prize. After Cannes, Play was shown in Venice and Toronto as well as numerous other festivals where it was awarded additional prices and distinctions. Amongst others, Play was nominated for the prestigious LUX prize of the European Parliament and won the Nordic Prize, the highest distinction in Scandinavia.
Over the last decade, Ruben’s approach to staging has influenced many Scandinavian directors and paved the way for experimentation in the usage of HD cameras and computers. In association with his producer and partner Erik Hemmendorff, he has created a collective with other innovative cinematographers called ‘The School of Gothenburg’.
Force Majeure is his fourth feature film.
Cast
Johannes Bah Kuhnke: Tomas Lisa Loven Kongsli: Ebba Clara Wettergren: Vera Vincent Wettergren: Harry Kristofer Hivju: Mats Fanni Metelius: Fanni
Crew
Ruben Östlund: Director / writer Fredrik Wenzel: Director of Photography Ola Fløttum: Composer
Details
DVD catalogue number: ART744DVD Blu-ray catalogue number: ART149BD
Awards
2015 Golden Globe nominee for Best Foreign Language Film
2015 British Independent Film Awards nominee for Best International Independent Film
Out now on DVD, Blu-ray & on demand
GENRE: Drama
CERTIFICATE: 15
DIRECTOR: Ruben Östlund
CAST:
Johannes Bah Kuhnke: Tomas
Lisa Loven Kongsli: Ebba
Clara Wettergren: Vera
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CREW:
Ruben Östlund: Director / writer
Fredrik Wenzel: Director of Photography
Ola Fløttum: Composer
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DURATION: 119 Mins
COUNTRIES: France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden
LANGUAGES: English, French, Norwegian, Swedish
AWARDS:
2015 Golden Globe nominee for Best Foreign Language Film
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Have your say
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A complete original - probably the most unique film you will see all year
BY: Carl Beazley
15.12.2015
A brilliantly original idea from director Ruben Östlund is conveyed brilliantly in this unique black comedy that pits moral obligations up against basic human instinct. Although this film is unques... Read more
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