Are we aware and coherent with our actions when we talk about and appeal to the ideas of equality and fraternity? This is one of the many questions posed in The Square, a comedy by Ruben Östlund, winner of the Palme d’Or in the Cannes festival. As he did in his previous film Turist (Force Majeure), where the devastating avalanche was not the real threat, so The Square makes use of a similar metaphor to bring to the surface the real nature of the museum director Christian, interpreted by Claes Bang. The day before the opening of a new installation called “The Square”, a conceptual space where “everybody can feel safe and happy, and trust the people around them”, Christian is assaulted and his wallet robbed. This event clearly exposes Christian´s mean-spirited side, especially towards those he considers to be intellectually or economically inferior.  Obsessed with his role as a victim, he conceives a plan to locate his telephone. In his search he will discover a reality that is very different to his normal life: the misery that exists in the streets of Stockholm.

The play between natural and artificial, between truth and its imitation, between what can fit inside a civilized framework and what cannot, are the spaces the film inhabits. Östlund reminds us about what stays out of the frame, and he sometimes does so in an extremely funny way!

2018

-Prémios Óscar: 

Nomeado Melhor Filme de Língua Estrangeira

-Globos de Ouro: 

Nomeado Melhor Filme em Língua Estrangeira

-Prémios Goya:

Melhor Filme Europeu

2017 

-Festival de Cannes: 

Palma de Ouro - Melhor Filme

-European Film Awards:  

Melhor Filme, Melhor Realizador, Melhor Comédia, Melhor Actor, Melhor Argumento, Melhor Direcção Artística

-Associação de Críticos de Cinema de Chicago: 

Melhor Filme de Língua Estrangeira