''Involuntary'' ( sv, De ofrivilliga) is a 2008 Swedish film directed by

Ruben Östlund Ruben Östlund (born 13 April 1974) is a Swedish filmmaker best known for his black comedic and satirical films ''Force Majeure'' (2014), '' The Square'' (2017) and '' Triangle of Sadness'' (2022), all of which received largely positive reviews an ...

described as "a tragic

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

or comic

tragedy Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy ...

." It features five parallel stories with human group behaviour as the common theme. The film is notable for its long takes with no cuts within the scenes. This is related to Östlund's background as a skiing film director, where a cut would only indicate failure. The longest scene lasts for seven minutes. The film received mainly positive reviews. It has won several awards at international film festivals and was nominated for five Swedish

Guldbagge Award The Guldbagge Awards ( sv, Guldbaggen, en, Gold scarab) is an official and annual Swedish film awards ceremony honoring achievements in the Swedish film industry. Winners are awarded a statuette depicting a rose chafer, better known by the nam ...

s including Best Film, but didn't win in any category. It was also selected as Sweden's submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the

82nd Academy Awards The 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2009 and took place on March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m ...

Production

The work with the script started already in autumn 2004, when Östlund and Hemmendorff started to write down vignettes on the theme, inspired by or taken directly from their own experiences. Filming started in the summer 2006. One scene per day was shot during the production, with around 20 takes for each scene, although some scenes demanded far more. The independent stories were shot one at a time, meaning that many of the actors never met before the premiere.

Release

The film premiered on 19 May 2008 at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

in the section

Un certain regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films w ...

Critical reception

The general reception in Swedish press was positive. As of 14 July 2009 it had an average rating of 4.3 out of 5 based on 24 reviews at the Swedish-language review site Kritiker.se, making it the highest rated Swedish film from 2008. An exception was Jan-Olov Andersson at '' Aftonbladet'', who rated the film 2 out of 5 and dismissed it as " Roy Andersson light."Andersson, Jan-Olov. (2008-11-28)
Roy Andersson i light-version
(in Swedish). '' Aftonbladet''. Retrieved 2009-02-15.

Production

Release

Critical reception

Awards and honours

References

External links