"A masterpiece"
Frédéric Boyer, QUINZAINE DES REALISATEURS

"PLAY is elegantly shot, (...) punctuated by unlikely moments of humour. (...) A fascinating exercise in psychology"
Mark Adams, SCREEN INTERNATIONAL

"A provocative drama"
Todd McCarthy, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

"A remarkable achievement"
Leslie Felperin, VARIETY

"An offbeat humour like in Roy Andersson's films"
Jean Roy, L'HUMANITE

"Modern, audacious, provocative"
Didier Péron, LIBÉRATION

"A fascinating movie (...) Östlund is one to watch !"
Michael Giltz, THE HUFFINGTON POST

"Sublimely filmed and constructed"
Hendy Bicaise, PALMARÈS MAGAZINE

"Ruben Östlund has proved once again to be as gifted a behavior therapist as a film director. (…) He succeeds in portraying the social role-play based on class, origin and colour"
Fredrik Sahlin, SVT

"A rare intelligence and style"
Fabien Lemercier, CINEUROPA

"A new study of power, manipulation, and group dynamics. (...) An anxiety-creating and clarifying experience. (...) A stylish, consistently completed film"
Gunnar Bergdahl, HELSINGBORGS DAGBLAD

"One could compare Östlund to Roy Andersson and Michael Haneke : the new unruly child of Swedish cinema."
SEPTIMOVICO.COM

Ruben Östlund was born in 1974 on Styrsö, a small island off the West Coast of Sweden. An avid skier, Östlund directed three ski films testifying his taste for long sequence shots. Östlund went on to study film at the University of Gothenburg where he developed his sense for constructed and well thought out sequence shots which has continued to evolve in his short and feature films until now. The director has also become known for his humorous and accurate look at human social behaviour.


 

His feature debut THE GUITAR MONGOLOID won the FIPRESCI Award at Moscow in 2005, while his second feature film INVOLUNTARY premiered at Un Certain Regard in 2008. PLAY, his last feature film, was selected at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight in 2011.

FILMOGRAPHY

2011 PLAY, Fiction, 116 min.
2010 INCIDENT BY A BANK, Fiction, 10 min.
2008 INVOLUNTARY, Fiction, 98 min.
2005 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SCENE NUMBER 6882, Fiction, 9 min.
2004 THE GUITAR MONGOLOID, Fiction, 85 min.

Crew

Director: Ruben Östlund
Script: Ruben Östlund
Producers: Erik Hemmendorff, Philippe Bober
Production Companies: Plattform Produktion, Coproduction Office ApS, Parisienne de Production
Director of Photography : Marius Dybwad Brandrud
Casting : Katja Wik
Production Design & Costume Design : Pia Aleborg
Sound : Jens De Place Bjørn
Sound Design & Sound Mix : Jan Alvermark, Robert Sörling, Claes Lundberg
Editing : Ruben Östlund, Jacob Schulsinger, Mikel Cee Karlsson
Music : Saunder Jurriaans and Daniel Bensi
Creative Consultant : Kalle Boman
 

Technical Information

Category: Feature Film / Fiction
Original Language: Swedish
Shooting Device: Red One
Screening Fomat: DCP
Screen Ratio: 1:1.85
Speed: 25 frames/second
Sound: Dolby 5.1

PREMIERE

   Cannes 2011, Directors' Fortnight

MAIN AWARDS

Moscow 2011, Grand Prix
Tokyo 2011, Best Director
Gijon 2011, Best Director

MAIN SELECTIONS

Toronto 2011, Visions Programme
New York 2011, Main Slate
London 2011, Cinema Europe
CPH:DOX 2011, DOX:AWARD Section